


Undercover

by Animaeline



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Fem Lance, Genderbend, I Ship It, LGBTQ Themes, Multi, My First Fanfic, Ship, Short, Short Chapters, Voltron, Written on a phone, klance, she/her pronouns for pidge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-21 01:08:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 28,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9524840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Animaeline/pseuds/Animaeline
Summary: Keith thinks he's straight... but begins to question his sexuality when Pidge transforms Lance into a girl.





	1. The first switch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith thinks he's straight... but begins to question his sexuality when Pidge transforms Lance into a girl.

A scream pitched a higher soprano than usual alerted the majority of the Voltron crew that Pidge's little "experiment" had been a success. Keith, who was out of the loop, looked quizzically at the others as they reacted to the sound. 

Hunk, face palmed and groaned, rolling his eyes and muttering something along the lines of "That's it. We're screwed." Pidge grinned from ear to ear and did a victory fist pump with a shout of joy. Allura just sat calmly, her smile looking unusually smug, but it was clear that she was pleased. Coran looked at Pidge with a look of disbelief and shook his head in wonder. 

The door burst open and there stood a tan girl with long hair in boxers and a plain white shirt that was much to big for her. Her panicked blue eyes flicked around the room until they found Pidge. The girl stomped right up to the green padalin and grabbed the collar of her shirt. 

The tan girl screamed into the smiling Pidge's face. "WHAT THE HOLY QUIZNAK DID YOU DO WITH MY PENIS?!" The stranger's dark brown hair swayed at her waist, light waves accented her beauty even more. 

Keith was so enraptured by gorgeous stranger's beauty that he had blanked out for a second. Keith stood up so fast that his chair was knocked to the ground behind him. Pulling out his beyark he activated it, pointing his blade at the hot tanned girl. 

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND HOW THE QUIZNAK DID YOU GET ON THE SHIP?!" The girl let go of Pidge's neck and fell to the floor, her knees collapsing under her and the too big shirt welling up onto the ground. Tears sprung into her eyes and her bottom lip quivered. Allura stood and got between the girl and Keith. Sighing, Allura rolled her eyes and motioned for Keith to put away his weapon. 

"Keith, calm down." Allura grinned mischievously. "This girl is essential to our defeat of Zarkon!" Keith's eyebrows knitted together in confusion as he sheathed his sword. 

"So... Allura, I take it you know this girl?" Keith questioned as he leaned to peek at the girl in question behind Allura's skirt. The attractive woman had started wailing, tears streaming down her face as she tried to form words. 

"P-piiiiidge! Wha-what the h*hic*ell did yah do tuh meeeeeeeeeee!!"

Even with red cheeks, hot damn she was attractive. Keith couldn't take his eyes off her. Suddenly, the girl flipped her head and locked eyes with Keith. " the hell you lookin' at Keef." She challenged defiantly. Keith blushed and abruptly turned his eyes away. Allura giggled mysteriously and vaguely answered "oh yes, I know her, and I think that you will find that you already know her as well." 

Keith cocked up an eyebrow but didn't say anything. His face was still burning hot, and it was far too likely that his pale skin still betrayed him by blushing. Keith sighed in defeat and looked up into Allura's eyes. "So how exactly do I know this... chick? Firstly, when did she get here? Who is she? What's her name?"

Pidge chortled in a way that could not mean anything good. Her smirk was directed at the girl on the floor who was messily pushing at the tears that had leaked from her eyes. "Well" Pidge started, "I guess we could call her Lancerella? No... what about Lancette? Lancie? Lancena? Lanie?" 

Pidge turned her eyes over to Keith, who was obviously still very confused. Pidge sighed in frustration and rolled her eyes. The girl sniffled and water sprang to her eyes once again. Keith panicked and ran over to her. "Um... don't cry! Are you okay? Can I help? Umm..." 

Keith's head was doing loops. This girl, he was falling head over heels with her. Seriously, if she had been an alien, or even another gender, Keith was positive that he would have eventually fallen for them. It was like she had a gravitational power that pulled him towards her. The girl stared at her knees and muttered softly " 'm...nce." Keith leaned forward. 

"I'm sorry... I couldn't understand what you were saying..." the girl looked up at his face with glistening wet eyes. Her eyebrows rose to a peak and her voice came out as a gentle whine, like the wind blowing through leaves after a rainstorm.

"I'm Lance."

...

Keith blinked. 

"I'm sorry, what? I think I misheard you. I could've sworn I just hear you say that you were Lance."

The girl's bottom lip quivered again and she nodded that she had indeed said that she was lance. Lance. As in the obnoxious, loud and weirdly attractive pilot of the blue lion. Keith blinked his eyes as he tried to overlap the girl in his mind with the boy that he was so familiar with. Honestly, he was surprised he hadn't noticed the connections sooner (with how much he had been watching Lance as of late.) But, the girl did indeed resemble Lance. 

The sweep of her eyelashes, the deep mesmerizing blue of her crystal clear eyes, her soft, full lips. Keith fell backwards onto his bottom, shock apparent on his face making him seem strangely vulnerable. 

"Holy crap, she's... Lance?" Keith blinked as his mind slowly clicked into place. "She... is Lance." His voice shook a little as he tried to wrap his head around the sudden change. 

Lance was still on the floor in her, or rather his, much to big male clothing. Lance sniffled and Pidge nodded in approval. "Yup. Lance is now female!!" 

Lance stared up at Pidge. "But whyyyyyy! Why am I a giiiiirl?!" Pidge rolled her eyes at looked over at Allura who sighed and then sat back down. Allura looked between the female Lance, the angered Hunk, the shell shocked Keith, the wondering Coran and the satisfied Pidge. 

"Well, simply put, we needed a girl." Allura stated as if it were obvious. Hunk groaned and llance stared dubiously at Allura. Keith still couldn't tear his eyes away from Lance. Lance sputtered and floundered as (s)he tried to select the right words. 

"Why?? Pidge is basically a girl," 

"Basically?! I am a girl, jackass." Pidge spit at Lance. Lance ignored her and continued his sentence.

"Allura is a girl. Keith is flipping hot and could pass as a girl with a little makeup! Keith is basically a goddess! What the hell did you need me for??" Lance's voice transformed into high pitched squeak towards the end and Keith felt like his face was on fire. 

Pidge's smile had slipped at the 'basically a girl comment' but Allura was giggling as if this was the most hilarious thing she had ever seen. "Well, Lance. Pidge, while she is 'basically a girl'," (Pidge mumbled in discontent at Allura's remark.) "And I am female, both Pidge and I have vital roles that require both of us to be out of the spotlight. Pidge is taking care of the security system from outside the ship, I need to stay inside the castle in case we have to make a quick get away!" Lance pouted. 

"But Allura! Why me?"

Allura frowned, "well, you were chosen for many reasons! For one, you already take care of your skin, which is always glowing beautifully! Second, I really, really, really didn't want to see Coran in a dress." Coran chuckled and rolled his eyes "I don't know if I should be offended or relieved!" He scoffed. 

Allura smiled and continued counting off the reasons from her fingers. "Thirdly, hunk found out before we could spike his food with the experimental drug." ("And thank god for that." Wispered hunk.) "Fourth, Keith would have killed us if we had tried anything, and fifth, I don't think you've ever seen the acting of anyone else here, but frankly, besides you Lance... we're all horrible liars."

Lance twiddled with her fingers and played with the baggy edges of her T-shirt. "Um...okay I guess... but um..." 

Allura smiled kindly at Lance and motioned for her to continue the sentence. Lance looked up and blushed, "C-can I have some clothing? A-also... how the hell to I go to the restroom like this?" Understanding dawned in Allura's eyes and Keith's face had converted to a shade of red deeper than his lion. Allura coughed awkwardly. 

"Um, yes, Keith? Female Lance is close to your size so would you mind getting some of your smaller clothes for her?" Keith nodded fervently, eager to bring his face back down to its natural color and escape before his 'crush' on Lance was outed. Keith immediately regretted not burning lance's image into his retinas, but was relieved to see that both hunk and corran (whom had followed him out of the room) were also rather pink faced. 

Keith returned to his room and flumped onto his bed, burying his face into his pillow. 

He knew that Lance was flipping hot as a male, but as far as Keith knew, he was straight! Would his feelings remain the same even if Lance changed back into his, or rather, her natural body? Keith sighed silently into his pillow and picked himself off the bed and over to his dresser, one of the best parts about the garrison was that it had taught him how to stay neat and tidy.

Keith selected a tan pair of cargo pants that were a bit too short for his current height from his bottom drawer and a blue work out tee from the top drawer. Keith folded the clothing and looked in his middle drawer for a belt, in case the pants were too big. 

Keith had never realized how small girls were... or how slender Lance was... Keith wondered what the male Lance would look like without a shirt... surely he was skinny... a natural brown skin that covered his chest, and an innie belly button. Lance would definitely be fit, muscles that stretched over his torso and moved elegantly when he... 

Keith shook the fantasies from his head violently as he felt the blush returning to his cheeks. Gathering the clothing in his arms and holding it tight to his chest, almost like a hug. Keith hesitated before exiting through the spacecraft's sliding doors into the familiar corridor. Lance's room was just down the hall, only one door down. Keith pinched his thigh before he started drifting through fantasies again. 

The small green light on the top right corner of Lance's door indicated that there were life forms within the room. Keith lightly treaded over to the door. The doors in the castle had never seemed so frightening. Keith took in a sharp breath then exhaled very slowly. 

Keith knew he was stalling but his courage was quickly faltering. Keith knocked on the door softly... sighing, Keith knocked louder and a scared squeak sounded from inside the doors. 

"Um... Keith? Is that you?" Lance called from inside the room. The door opened a little bit and Lance peeked out. "Did you find any clothing that might fit me? All of my clothing is ridiculously baggy, to the point of falling off! Pidge's clothing to too tight um... around the...ch- chest area. And Allura is too tall..." Keith's cheeks pinked and he held out the bundle of clothing to Lance. 

Keith mumbled something like "I hope they fit." And stalked away as fast as he could, resisting the urge to look back at Lance. Lance held the wall and peeked out into the hallway, watching Keith go. Keith turned to go into his room and promptly slammed into the walls causing Lance to flinch and Keith to curse. Lance laughed a little as Keith clutched his face and griped, forcing his doors open and stomping into his room. 

Lance held up the blue tee-shirt and blushed a little bit at the thought of wearing Keith's clothing... especially at wearing Keith's pants. Lance had gotten an bra from Allura and Pidge had adjusted some of Lance's boxers... to look like panties. Lance groaned in disgust at the awkward and revealing shape of the modified underwear. Lance pulled the underwear on and struggled to clip the bra in the back... Lance suddenly feet very sympathetic for the whole female kind. 

Lance's chest was much too big for comfort and the bra was easily comparable to the feeling of a tightening boa constrictor. Lance looked at her body in the mirror, he looked like the cover girl on one of the Playboy magazines that older garrison students sometimes snuck into the dorms. 

Her long brown hair kept swaying into her field of vision and annoying the hell out of Lance. She grabbed the blue shirt and tugged it roughly over her head, wincing when she accidentally pulled on some of her hair. Lance yanked on the still-too-big cargo pants, trying not to think about the person who actually owned the loose pants. 

Lance noticed the belt and smiled, but then pressed his lips into a thin line. Lance may be pansexual, but as far as Lance knew, Keith was a fully certified straight man. And it was bad news to fall in love with a straight dude, even if Lance was a girl now, Lance hadn't any clue when she would turn back into a, well, he. Lance tightened the belt and the long pants pooled around his feet like she was a character from Kim possible.

Lance rolled her eyes and tucked some stray hairs behind her ear. Looking at her own reflection in the mirror, Lance began to worry... was it even possible to turn back into a guy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very sorry for the awkward writing and the very short summary... plainly put, this is the first time I've ever published a fanfic!! I love drawing and I plan to do some more voltron art in the near future... If you would like to check out my instagram, my username is @animaeline  
> Um... This is a project that I will work on when I'm bored or stressed, or avoiding homework! ...which means I'll probably post again very soon! (lol)  
> Thank you very much for stopping in... I hope you like what you read!! >///<  
> \- Animaeline


	2. Theoretically...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of screaming, hurt feelings, and finally! Coming to terms with the situation.

Lance was sitting in the kitchen area where hunk was dishing out some sort of strange alien cuisine onto plates for everyone. Pidge and Allura were chattering away about how they should dress Lance up when she was going to infiltrate the enemy ships. 

Coran was doing security checks on the inner workings of the castle and Keith, well, Keith was MIA. Lance assumed that Keith was probably working out or something... 

Pidge suddenly shifted her attention towards Lance and asked a very, very awkward question. "Hey Lancie?" ("...don't call me that.") Pidge sounded like an angel but her voice betrayed the thoughts of a devil. "What's it like to suddenly have boobs?"

Hunk spit out whatever he had been eating and started coughing like a madman. Lance's eyes widened and she wasn't exactly sure how she should respond. Hunk finally recovered from his coughing fit and stared at Pidge with an expression that would only be described as incredulous. "Um...Pidge? Isn't that a bit too personal?" Pidge shrugged and turned back to Lance with eyes of a hunter that was appraising their pray. 

"So?" Lance looked, and felt, uncomfortable. "Um... I guess... they're softer than I thought they would be..." Lance dropped her eyes to her long, slender fingers. Lance's face was quickly adopting a cherry tomato red. The other people in the room quickly found that lance's blush was quite contagious. Pidge muttered something about how it was unfair that Lance had a bigger chest than herself and Allura combined, causing Hunk and Lance to blush even deeper. 

Allura coughed to break the awkward silence and clapped her hands together. "Well, in light of Lance's recent change (which we caused, but that's not important right now) perhaps we should go shopping in order to collect a wardrobe that actually fits her!" Pidge perked up, the opportunity to make fun of Lance was far too obvious to leave alone. Jumping up, Pidge clapped her hands together and smirked at Lance. 

"Yes!! Let's go shopping for Lance!!" Lance rolled her eyes and groaned, thinking about all of her favorite shirts that she may never fit into again. Lance absolutely abhorred the idea of being shoved into a skirt or a dress, mostly because she knew that Pidge would never let her forget it. Lance sighed, because she sensed that there was no getting out of this situation. "Fine! Okay, lets go...shopping I guess." 

Allura was thrilled and Pidge grinned, schemes already falling into place inside her mind. Lance looked up at Pidge, "I just have one question." Pidge nodded, as if telling Lance to continue. Lance let out a sigh, "did you test this drug before using it on me?" Allura and Pidge jolted, guilt showing through the cracks on their poker faces. Lance and hunk groaned in unison, "so you don't even know if lance will be able to change back?" Hunk sounded like a parent, telling their kid off for a nasty prank they committed. 

Pidge looked up at hunk's glare, a guilty smile spreading across her face. "Well... it's not like we could spike an alien stranger's drink! Plus, then we wouldn't know if it was affective on human life forms. Plus, Allura wouldn't let me test it on the mice." Allura kicked the back of pidge's chair, and Pidge jolted, holding onto the edges of the seat so that she would stay off of the ground. 

"Of course I wouldn't!! But I've got some dirt on Pidge that she doesn't really want to be public, so Pidge won't dare touch the mice now!" Pidge frowned and Allura grinned, proving that allura's words did have truth in them. Pidge cleared her throat and dismissed Allura's words with a wave of her hand. 

"Whatever. Well, we knew it would be safe because I checked in with the planet of engineers that we saved earlier. With the giant death cube?" Lance rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I remember. So? What did they say?" Pidge rolled her eyes "hold your horses, Lance. I'm getting to that. So, I sent them a sample, and we adjusted the experiment together and made it so that it's not 'permanent' per say." Lance glared at Pidge, pulling her legs up and sitting cross cross on her chair. 

"Pidge, what the hell do you mean 'per say'." Lance's staring made Pidge feel even more guilty and just uncomfortable overall. Pidge ran a hand through her own short hair in an attempt to slow down the process of pleading guilty to the audience in the kitchen. Pidge swallowed and Allura cocked and eyebrow at Pidge, "I thought you had a way to change Lance back already." Pidge winced and mumbled. Realizing that nobody had heard what she said, Pidge groaned and stared at her shoes. 

"Theoretically..." Lance's mouth popped open and Allura flicked her eyes from Pidge to Lance, her eyes were so wide that it looked like they couldn't open any further. The only audible sound in the kitchen was hunk's hand smaking hard against his face in a painful face palm. 

"THEORETICALLY?!" Lance screeched. "THEORETICALLY MEANS THAT YOU CAN'T. WHAT THE HELL PIDGE. HOLY QUIZNAK!" Lance stood from the chair with such force that it clattered the floor behind her. "SCREW YOU PIDGE. SCREW. YOU." Lance stomped out into the hallway screaming like a banshee. "THEORETICALLY?!"

The angry stomps receded down the castles corridor and Pidge flinched when the doors to the kitchen shut. Allura took a deep breath and turned back to pidge.  
"So, theoretically? Theoretically Lance can change back." Pidge nodded in agreement at Allura's statement. "Yes. That's why I'm so eager to go shopping (though I hate shpping for anything except games). I've got the blueprints and everything ready. I can't change him back forever, but, I have the plans for a bracelet I can make so that Lance can CHOOSE the gender. That way, we can still send Lance on undercover missions, and, Lance can be in his normal body when he wants to relax!" 

Allura nodded and smiled pleasantly in approval. 

Hunk stared at Pidge "then what the quiznak are we waiting for?? Let's go get Pidge her tools, Lance his dress and some ingredients for the kitchen. Maybe some dumbbells for Keith or something. And like... I dunno, more dumbbells for shiro or something." The kitchen audience stared at hunk. "...what? Is there something on my face?" 

Allura stood up and hugged hunk, who was confused by the sudden contact. "Oh? A-Allura? Are we hugging now? Is this what we're doing? Did I miss something?!" 

Allura beamed. "So! I guess we're going shopping! The answer was so stupidly simple that we all overlooked it! Okay! I'll go find the others and let them know!" Allura spun out of the room through the sliding doors and then she was gone. 

Pidge breathed a sigh in relief, glad that the blame had been momentarily diverted from her. Pidge turned to hunk, who had gone back to the food he had been preparing. Pidge took a deep breath. "Thank you, hunk." Hunk turned around with a look that almost spelled out 'what for?' Pidge cleared her throat. "For coming up with a solution... I-I owe you one."

Hunk grinned at Pidge and offered her a plate of food. Pidge had a small smile on her thin lips and took the plate gratefully. 

 

...

 

"...stupid Pidge... stupid Allura... stupid body... stupid bra." Lance was pissed. 

Not the 'it's-okay-I'm-sorry-too-I'm-glad-this-was-over-in-only-a-day kind of pissed. 

This was a holy-quiznak-I-can't-believe-you-broke-your-promise-and-told-my-crush-I-liked-them-you-quiznaking-jackass kind of pissed. 

The kind of pissed that destroyed all types of relationships. The kind of pissed that incited wars. The kiND OF PISSED THAT YOU GET WHEN SOMEONE CHANGES YOUR GENDER WITHOUT PERMISSION OR A WAY TO CHANGE IT BACK. 

Yes, Lance was that kind of pissed. 

Keith was probably fighting the simulator robots... Pidge was probably still in the kitchen being a jerk... Hunk... was probably eating something. Coran was probably in the inner workings of the castle doing repairs and other junk that Lance didn't understand how to do. Shiro was probably keeping an eye out on the main control room in order to settle his paranoia of the possibitity of an attacking Galra ship. And Allura... well, Lance had no clue what Allura was doing, but he probably wouldn't be able to understand that either. 

Lance sighed. 

As a girl, Lance was shorter. As a girl, Lance wasn't as strong. As a girl, Lance was going to have to suffer through... a period. 

Lance shuddered in disgust at the idea of the monthly bleeding and pain. Lance stretched out her fingers and traced the slender knuckles with her brilliant blue eyes. Lance curled her fingers into a fist. 

So what if she was shorter, she could just use a chair or a step stool! So what if she wasn't as strong, screw testosterone! So what if she was going to have a period!... well, Lance would have to deal with that when she got to it... but Lance could deal with it...and Lance would deal with it. 

Lance is Lance, no matter what pronouns were used. Lance is Lance no matter how others perceive her. Lance IS LANCE. And nobody could change that. Nothing will change that! Not her gender, not her size, not her strength, nada, nothing!

Lance grinned at her own reflection in the mirror. Then Lance frowned. Then Lance bared her teeth. Then Lance used her new long hair to make a moustache. Then lance-  
"Knock knock, Lance? Can I come in? Or are you changing or something?" Hunk's voiced called as the sliding doors opened automatically. Hunk's eyebrows almost reached his bandana. "Lance. What in the space time continuum do you think you're doing?" Lance dropped the hair that she had been using as devil horns and untied the hair-bow-moustache that was fitted under her nose. 

"Uhh... nothing in particular." Lance patted the loose hairs down and looked over at hunk. "Wassup?" Hunk smiled. "So, you feeling better then?" Lance simply grinned back and nodded twice. Hunk sighed with relief and held a hand out to his best friend. "Wanna go meet up with the rest of the crew in the kitchen? We're gonna go shopping and Pidge can explain how the gender thing works. Everyone is waiting for you."

Lance made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a cough and stepped out of the familiar room into the familiar hallways. Even if Lance had become female, nothing changed! Lance took a deep breath and let it out through his mouth with a smile. "Well then, what are we waiting for? Lead the way!" Hunk smiled back and began down the hallway with Lance at his side, glad that things were maybe finally going to slip back into normalcy, slip back to normal. 

"So... Lance," hunk looked down at lance's small, bare feet. "You cool with the whole... girl thing?" Lance burst out in a high singsong laughter, then wiping a tear from her eye Lance turned her head to grin mischievously at Hunk's conflicted face. 

"Theoretically."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, and welcome back!! Two chapters in two days! Maybe I've set a record or something lol.  
> I hope that you are still enjoying my amateur writing...  
> There weren't many fluffy Klance moments today but there will be PLENTY in the near future!  
> I'm writing this on my phone so I my apologies for any spelling errors that are slipping through!  
> I made a reference to a season two episode... but I couldn't remember what the aliens were called...oops~  
> Well, I'm enjoying writing this and I hope that you all are enjoying reading it!!  
> Next chapter will be in tHE SPACE MALL FROM SEASON TWO!  
> I'm super excited to write those scenes!  
> ...maybe I'll draw a genderbent lance!  
> I still haven't decided on what the fem name will be... but I'm sure I'll figure it out on the way! Or Maybe just stick with lance XD  
> Thank your for reading and keep and eye out for the next chapter!!  
> Again, if you would like to chat with me (PLEASE DO!!!) you can DM me on my Instagram account! my user is __animae__  
> Again! Thank you so much for reading!  
> Come back when I post the next chapter!! u///u  
> Virtual hugs for all!!  
> -Animaeline


	3. Shopping and other irritations.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge sort of apologizes to Lance.  
> Keith... doesnt really show up much.  
> Lance figures out how much she really hates clothes shopping and learns what it's like to be on the other end of being hit on by a stranger.  
> Which is not pleasant.  
> Like, at all.

As the kitchen door slid open, Lance noticed a myriad of expressions cross over the familiar faces in front of her. Pidge faced towards Lance with grim determination, Keith blushed and turned away ("what's his problem?" Hunk muttered) Allura stared at shiro with a smug smile and shiro... his face switched with record speed from sarcastic disbelief to shock to regret. 

"Damn..." Shiro breathed out the swear and passed some alien currency into Allura's open palm. Allura pecked shiro on the cheek and casually flicked her brilliant white hair over her shoulder as she shoved the money into her pocket. "I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so!" 

Allura winked at Lance and (smirking) pointed towards the corner of the kitchen area. Coran was sitting in a ball on the far side of the gloop machines whispering to himself something along the lines of "how come I miss all of the cool technologie-ee stuff. I'll be out of the room for just a tick, I told them. Don't do anything interesting while I'm gone, I told them..."

Lance cocked an eyebrow at the voltron crew. It seemed that while she was off having her revelation moment, lots of stuff had happened. "Soooo... is anyone gonna tell me what that's about?" Lance asked as she pointed a thumb over at Coran's balled up figure. 

Pidge looked over at hunk, as if waiting for him to explain. Hunk rolled his eyes and tapped lance's shoulder. "Pidge wants me to let you know that there's a way for your gender to become more pliable. You know, so you could change back, sort of. " lance's eyes widened, but then squinted suspiciously. "What do you mean by 'sort of'?"  
Pidge's techno nerd dam burst. 

"Well, by 'sort of' hunk means that by using new and rising technologies paired with my skill, a device can be made that will create a messenger to your brain using the hidden electro magnetic substance in every blood cell of humanoid beings that have spent an elongated time outside of their native planet's gravitational field. You see, when someone spends time in a pod, ship or the castle for example that is traveling through space-especially if it has a wormhole feature that has been used while the person is on the ship- then the adaptations that the being has made for the change in overall environment will-" 

Pidge abruptly cut off her explication, because she had realized that most of what she had said was techie jargon that nobody but herself would understand. 

"Um... long story short... I can make a bracelet or a necklace or something, like a crown... but not a ring or earrings cause those would be to small... wait this was supposed to be a short story... uhh, to change you back completely would hurt your cells too much, so I can make something that you can keep on you at all times so you can choose whatever gender you want to be." 

"And! AND!" Pidge's eyes were sparkling with excitement, "you can still go on missions as a girl! You'll be like a spy!! Like a freAKING SUPERHERO!" By the end of pidge's speech, she was standing on top of her chair with her fist towards the ceiling like a power ranger. Pidge blushed and quickly shrunk back down into a criss cross sitting position and shyly looked up at lance's face, thinking that Lance might get angry at her again. 

Lance stared at Pidge, a blank look that didn't give away any emotions, a perfect poker face that everybody thought was impossible for Lance to pull off.  
"Um... Lance? Are you still angry at me?? We just... have to go shopping for parts then you can freely transform... Lance? Lance are you still pissed at me?" Pidge scowled at Lance's impassive expression, waiting for her face to become angry again. 

But, Lance wasn't angry, nor was she upset... mostly because he'd just been told that his childhood dream would come true. 

Lance was going to become a superhero. 

A small smile rapidly grew to a full blown grin on lance's face. "Well? What are we waiting for? Let's land this castle-ship and go make some successful purchases!!"

 

...

 

"...this was NOT what I meant by successful purchases."  
Lance griped as she stood in a girls changing room while Princess Allura chattered incessantly, tossing colorful dresses, skirts and blouses over the top of the door. Lance held a frilly crop top colored such a bright hot pink that Lance thought that it might sear out her eyes. 

Making a retching noise, quietly enough so that Allura didn't hear, Lance tossed the top into the ever growing "hell no" pile. Muttering to herself, Lance picked up the next clothing article and muttered to herself "Maybe this is a sign from the gods to go goth or something..." Lance picked in obvious distaste at the pile of clothing that Allura kept adding to with freakish accuracy. 

"Um... hey Allura? Can't I just get a t-shirt and a pair of jeans? Then we can be done with this!" Allura gasped, as if Lance had asked something outrageous and somehow insulted Alteans in the same sentence. "Stars, no! This is the most fun I've had sense we left Altea in episode one!" 

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What does episode one mea-"

"Never mind that, Lance try on this dress! And you HAVE TO come out and show me what it looks like on you!" Lance groaned but complied anyway. 

Plus, Lance actually liked the dress-overall-shorts-thing. It was red and very flowy. 

The shoulders were showing and long, baggy see-though sleeves bunched at her wrists like gypsy clothing. The torso portion was easy to move in and form fitting. 

It showed off lance's curves, but not in a way that was too obvious. Going further down, the outfit looked kinda like a jumpsuit or overalls with shorts. 

The shorts were... very short, but made of a comfortable fabric that was easy to move in. From the waist line down there was a sort of half skirt that flowed like see through flower petals down to her ankles. Even as the fabric moved in made a quiet, satisfying swishing sound. 

Lance opened the door and Allura did something like a backwards gasp. Allura grinned, "Lance! You look beautiful!" Lance smirked and spun in a circle, giggling in a sing song voice she said "I know!" 

Allura chuckled and stood on her heels to check behind Lance. "What's that big pile in the corner?" Lance's face froze as she tried to stall and think of the least offensive way to say 'yeah-no-quiznaking-way-in-hell-am-I-going-to-ever-wear-any-of-that-junk.' "That's the "he-"... that's the pile of stuff that doesn't fit me! Yeah, also stuff that's uncomfortable..." 

Allura nodded, seeing the reason in lance's sorting. Allura swept past Lance and grabbed all of the clothing from the 'sure whatever' and 'I guess it's okay' piles and brought them over to the register. Lance secretly snuck a few pairs of jeans and a black T-shirt into the pile of horrendously bright clothing. 

Allura wispered something to the cashier, the cashier nodded and Allura smiled. Turning back to Lance, "the cashier says that you can wear it out of the store~ I DO NOT want you back in those baggy pants." 

Lance rolled her eyes but was grateful for the opportunity to leave the clothing cage. 

Lance shivered as she left, for Lance knew that the clothing store experience was going to be nightmare fuel for days... maybe even weeks. 

Lance was walking barefoot down the mall's hallway. Looking at the varied array of goods in the store windows. A finger tapped on her shoulder and she turned around expecting it to be Pidge or Keith (shiro and hunk were inside the castle doing some final checks on how the replacement gears fit into the engine.) An unfamiliar face towered over lance's figure. 

"Um... can I help you?" Lance questioned the man... well, at least Lance thought they were a man, the alien person looked pretty androgynous. The alien smiled and said (in a very masculine voice) "Are you lost little lady?" Lance cocked an eyebrow at the stranger. 

"Um...no?" Lance replied. The stranger laughed. 

"Are you being shy? How cute! Are you here with someone? Your sister?" Lance put her hands on her hips, starting to become very irritated. 

"Look, dude, can I help you with something?"

The guy smirked and grabbed lance's wrist. "Aww, you're so cute! How's about we go and get something to eat together?" 

Lance made a growling sound in the back of her throat. Was this guy hitting on her? Ugh, ew. Maybe Lance would stop hitting on girls so often, because frankly, this whole experience was terrifying and just plain gross. 

"Hey bud, do I have to spell it out for you? Not. Interested. Like, at all. Let go of my hand." Lance tried to yank her wrist free but the guy was just too strong. 

The dude was smiling. 

SMILING. 

He obviously was NOT getting the hint. 

"No, seriously. Let go. Ever heard of a personal bubble? For all you know I could already be in a relationship! You know, romantically?? Get off me." The guy just grinned and squeezed Lance's wrist harder, causing her to flinch in pain. 

"Aw, babe, don't be that way! Now let's just go an-"

Out of nowhere a fingerless-gloved hand shot and clasped the offending flirter's arm. "Dude, what's your effing problem?! She said no." 

Lance looked up to see who had saved her, the bottom layer of his mullet shook as the unidentified man turned to look at Lance. Lance's eyes widened, and she squeeked out a single name. 

"Keith?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody!!  
> Thank you for reading my third chapter and chapter four has already been started!  
> In case you're having a hard time visualising what fem lance looks like, here's a picture I drew (it's on my tumblr so please follow if you feel so inclined!!!)
> 
> Fem Lance concept sketches:  
> http://animaeline.tumblr.com/post/156802899448/i-dont-have-many-followers-but-i-felt-the-need-to 
> 
> And in case you were curious!! here's Lance's red-dress-thing I drew!! :  
> http://animaeline.tumblr.com/post/156807967918/posting-chapter-3-of-undercover-now-heres-fem  
> Please enjoy!!  
> I really hope that you liked today's chapter!! >///<  
> Please keep an eye out for the next one! Love ya all!!  
> Virtual hugs! XO  
> \- Animaeline


	4. Adventures in shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klance fluff, evading the mall justice system and... Allura goes on a shopping spree.  
> Keith and Lance both contemplate the future and change... but not for long because I got bored. Sorry...

Keith sighed. 

Why were good knives so freaking expensive?

Keith heard a commotion behind him and turned to see what it was. Some girl in red was pinned against the wall by a guy who was almost too tall to stand under the mall balcony. Maybe they were dating or something. Whatever it was, Keith really didn't want to get involved. Keith started to walk away but guilt had a hold on him and would not let him go. Keith growled and spun on his heel. 

"Fine! Whatever! Even though it's not my problem I'll go help, cause I have nothing better to do!" Keith grumbled to himself as he stalked forward towards that fight. As Keith got closer, he got a better look at the dude's face... not that a better look made him any better looking. Male Lance was much hotter than this doofus. 

As Keith got closer it was pretty dang clear that they were not together and the girl did not wanna be with that ugly douche. Keith sighed and rolled his eyes. 

The male's voice was nowhere near as suave and smooth as the voice that Lance used to flirt. In fact, his voice was gross. It was low and strained, with a weird rumbling undertone that sounded something like the vibrations of a malfunctioning engine. Ew. 

Keith shivered in disgust, very happy that he was not the one being hit on. Keith couldn't quite see the girl's face, but damn she had some nice legs. No wonder she was getting hit on. Her half-skirt-thing shimmered and flowed behind her like a star's flames. Keith shook his head and steeled his resolution. 

The man's words made Keith wanna hurl. 

"--Aw babe, don't be that way! Now let's just go an-" Keith's fingerless-gloved hand shot out and Keith glared into the guy's surprised eyes. His grip loosened on the girl's wrist and she yanked it out of the man's grasp, falling against the wall. Keith didn't look away from the man's hardened eyes... Keith wasn't certain, but he was pretty sure that this had turned into a staring contest. 

The guy blinked. 

Okay, so, maybe not a staring contest...

Keith sucked in a breath then firmly, but not quite shouting at the man, "Dude, what's your effing problem?! She said no." 

Keith turned towards the girl and his eyes became almost as wide as hers were. "Keith?" Lance squeaked. Keith's eyebrows shot up and he could feel the familiar blush bubbling up to his cheeks again. 

The flirter shook his arm free of Keith's grip with inhuman strength (well, duh, the guy was an alien). 

"What's up with you two? You guys dating sir something?" Lance's eyes sparkled and her arms shot out and clamped onto Keith's arm. Lance smiled in a way that would have made anyone swoon, regardless of gender, sexuality or romantic and sexual preferences. Keith had seen it before, but he'd never been the target of the smile before and he'd never been in such close proximity to Lance like this. 

Keith could hear his heartbeat pounding inside his own head and his vision suddenly became very focused. Too focused. At that moment (of Keith wanted to) he could have sworn he was able to count each individual hairs on Lance's head. 

"Y-yes. YES! My honeykins Keithipoo and I have been together for YEARS! Nothing can get between our love!" Lance squeezed Keith's arm into her breasts and Keith's face was set on FIRE. His ears, nose, cheeks, forehead... everything was blushing. Lance nudged Keith lightly and looked up at him with a slightly threatening, partially pleading look in her eyes.

"Right, Keithipoo?" Keith's eyes looked like dinner plates at he flicked his head from the stranger to Lance. 

Gulping audibly, Keith nodded. "Ye-yeah. Yes. We've been together for...f-for yeeeeears! Right... um... darling?"

Lance fit her head into a nook between Keith's stiff shoulders and his neck. "So? Do you need something with me mister?" Lance blinked like a porcelain doll, her voice cutesie, borderline baby talk. The guy who had been hitting on her blinked twice and scowled at nothing in particular. 

Lance grinned triumphantly and lance's her fingers between Keith's. "Well, sir, if that's all you need, my Keithipoo and I will be on our way now! Have a pleasant day!" Lance turned around and chuckled evilly, "sucker." 

Keith craned his neck to see what the guy they'd left behind. The dude muttered something like "She already had a guy?!" Then he fu*kiNG PUNCHED THE STORE WINDOW.

The glass shattered and flew everywhere. 

The other patrons in the mall shrieked and screamed in surprise. The store owner came out and started yelling at the dude, security guards making their way over on some weird segwayish machines that floated maybe 6 to 8 inches off the ground. 

Lance grinned back towards Keith's surprised face and whispered "run." With their hands locked together Lance sprinted forward through the mall, leaping in and out of shadows while laughter spilled like invisible priceless diamonds from her mouth. Keith felt that his blush was slowly receding back to his cheeks and he smiled in a way that made the corners of his eyes crinkle. 

Keith's laughter chimed in and to the sprinted all the way back to the castle, so enraptured in their crazed joy that the strange looks and stares from the other shoppers in the mall went wholly unnoticed. 

Keith let himself be dragged by Lance. The bob of her head, the sound of her voice, the flow of her hair... and the soft, warm hand that enveloped his own. 

Keith's mind began to wander as he ran. When Lance became male again, even just temporarily, would his hand still be open and welcoming? Would just the sight of Lance still bring warmth smoldering up under his cheeks? 

Would something change with Lance's gender?

...

The castle doors slid open. Keith and Lance leaned against the entrance walls breathing hard. Lance squeezed Keith's hand and grinned in a very innocent and child like manner. "Thank you for coming to save me!" Keith blushed hard and looked at the ground. "No problem..." 

Lance looked at Keith questioningly the gasped a small "oh!" Quickly unraveling her hand from his in minor embarrassment. 

Keith instantly regretted not holding on tighter. 

Lance's cheeks had a slight blush that colored her tan face pink. Lance looked up at Keith through her thick lashes. Lance traced her ocean blue eyes over the way his hair stuck to his neck. The way that his blush spread over the bridge of his nose. The way that he glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. 

Would it all go back to fighting when Lance was a guy again? Lance frowned. 

She didn't like the idea of becoming distant with Keith again, not when they had just gotten so close!

"What's wrong?" Keith's sudden question made Lance jump a bit, but she quickly relaxed into a casual smile. "Oh no, nothing's wrong! I was just thinking!" Keith cocked his head diagonally in confusion causing Lance (who couldn't decide whether Keith was more like a puppy or a cat) to giggle a bit. 

Lance theatrically flipped her hair with the back of her right hand and put her hands on her hips in a superhero-like position. "What am I thinking, you might wonder! Well," Lance let her hands fall from her hips. "I've just been thinking about change I guess, and the future."

For a second Keith was concerned that Lance was a psychic, because how else would their thoughts be so in sync? Keith shook the semi-ridiculous idea from his head and grinned at Lance. "Me too. I guess it's true that great minds think alike!" Lance's eyes widened and she blushed shyly from the unexpected complement. Keith realized the impact of his words right after he'd said them and, like the smooth dude he was, proceeded to make an excuse to exit the awkward situation. 

"Um... gotta, you know, go and... train... in the-uh- k-KITCHEN! Yeah! I'm just gonna go and-wait... who trains in the kitchen? Ah! Um... yes, kitchen. Yeah. Bye."  
Lance blinked in surprise at Keith's sudden and... elaborate exit. Lance cracked a smile as she watched the sliding door close behind him. Lance turned around and found that the main castle doors in front of her had opened. Allura, on the other side of the door smiled sweetly at Lance, Coran struggling behind her with enough shopping bags to open a store of their own. 

Allura grabbed lance's hands in her own and held them tight. "So, using the sizes of the stuff you chose with me. I got you an entire wardrobe! After all, we don't know when Pidge will finish that bracelet thing, and you have to be a girl for part of the rest of your life anyway, you might as well have the clothing for every occasion!"  
Lance inwardly groaned and made a wish that Pidge would finish the bracelet already. 

Lance did not know how much longer she could stand being Allura's dress up doll. 

Behind Allura, coran struggled under the weight and sheer size of Allura's purchases. "Um... princess? Lance? A little help maybe?"

Lance trotted over to coran, thankful for the excuse to leave the clothing conversation unfinished. Lance pasted a professional smile on her face and asked "so where is all this going?" 

Coran, his face covered by the bags replied "it's all going to your room." Lance froze. 

"All of it?"

Lance thought Coran might have nodded, but as his head was covered Lance couldn't really tell. "Yes, all of it." Lance began to wonder just how big Allura's definition of 'wardrobe' was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, we learned something today!!  
> Keith is great at acting AND making excuses!! XDD  
> This chapter basically gives me an excuse to draw fem Lance (and maybe male Lance too) in some cute girly outfits!  
> Sorry it took so long to post TT^TT For the record, I HATE GEOMETRY AND CHEM!  
> I have so many ideas but the words keep alluding me, well, at least I got this chapter done!!  
> Thank you for sticking around to chapter four!!  
> Also!  
> I love interacting with you guys so please continue commenting! your comments always make my day!  
> Speaking of comments, a while ago I got one that said this fic was transphobic... I panicked and deleted the comment without replying because my anxiety kicked into hyperdrive.  
> I just wanted to say... that if you see this fic that way, I'm very very sorry and I'll try my best to be more aware if I am offending any of you! Please know that you are welcome to voice your opinions and I will try my best to make my fic friendly for everyone.  
> If you would like to check out my social medias and shoot me a DM or a PM I always love making new internet friends!!   
> On IG my user is __animae__  
> On tumblr my user is animaeline  
> In case you missed it last chapter, I posted a link to Lance's red outfit that I designed!  
> here's the link again: http://animaeline.tumblr.com/post/156807967918/posting-chapter-3-of-undercover-now-heres-fem   
> Again, that you guys sosososo very much for reading!! It means so much to me! I check beck everyday to see if I got more comments... and I'm not joking.  
> Well!!  
> Please keep an eye out for chapter five!!  
> Virtual hugs!!  
> Animaeline out!!
> 
> -Animaeline


	5. Pidge's Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Pidge is working on the bracelet memories of earth lead to guilt.  
> What else can Pidge do but give a gift as an apology?  
> With a just a liiiiiiiittle help from Hunk's kitchen skills.

Pidge was hunched over a work table in her room, connecting small, intricate wire systems to an even smaller main power system that was (eventually) going to be hooked up to everything in the device.

Pidge would eventually make a decorated protective layer on the outer edges of the bracelet, but for now it looked like the Fenton thermos from the earthen cartoon, Danny phantom. 

Pidge let out a sigh and leaned back on her stool, her arms pinwheeling in the air before Pidge fell on the ground with a loud thud.

Luckily for Pidge, there was nothing sharp on the ground behind her. 

Pidge groaned, the coating of sweat on her back (accumulated from stress) made the green tank-top sticky and uncomfortable. The joints of her fingers ached from the small detail work that she had been doing for who knows how long...

Pidge figured that she should probably take a shower or something, but her back was sore from leaning over the half finished device on the table and frankly, even though the ground was cold and hard, Pidge didn't want to get up. 

At all. 

Pidge closed her eyes and smiled, remembering the days back on earth that she used to sneak into the garrison to chat with her brother and father, who was working as a temporary teacher at the time. 

Pidge recalled the countless times that Matt had skipped class to go and teach her some of the fighting and technical stuff that he was learning in the garrison. 

The times that she freaked Matt out by sneaking into his dorm room and suddenly showing up on his bed with no explanation. The notes that they left at each others windowsills. The flowers that Pidge, her father and her brother surprised their mother with on valentines... the memories kept flowing like scenes from old movies on a projector to the back of her eyelids. 

Familiar scenes played in faded sepia danced inside pidge's mind. Laughter trailed after old footsteps left far far behind on the grounds of the padalins home planet. Pidge's reverie was interrupted by the sliding of the door and someone clearing their throat. Pidge listlessly opened her eyelids and looked up, towards the door. Shiro was leaning against the door frame, a half smile quirked up at the edge of his mouth. 

His arms, prosthetic and not, were crossed in a way that Pidge was certain that her dad had rubbed off on him. 

Shiro looked down at her somewhat incredulously, it was as if his face had "what the heck are you doing on the floor?" written in permanent marker across his cheeks. Pidge grinned, and said the first thing that came to her mind. 

"Hey Shiro, what's UP?? Ehh? Eeeeeeh~?" Shiro rolled his eyes and face palmed but he was still smiling. 

Pidge was very thankful that Shiro was here with her, in the castle of lions. In many ways, Shiro was a lot like her dad. Shiro's sense of humor, the way his lopsided grin fell on him face, the way he laughed, the way he carried himself. Shiro was like a second dad to Pidge. Like a space dad, yeah, Shiro was Pidge's space dad. 

"What are you smiling at, Pidge?" Shiro had leaned over her, his hands on his hips. Pidge closed her eyes and locked her box of earth memories. 

At least she had someone up here with her. Space may be huge and lonely, but it was also wonderful and new. Space was also full of possibilities and opportunities! Pidge suddenly felt very guilty. 

Lance had to leave everything behind. 

Everything.

Keith was searching for his roots, Pidge was searching for her family and Shiro was helping her, because Shiro probably wanted to see the rest of the holt's just as much as Pidge did. 

In these stars, even hunk had shay. Everyone had, or gained, reasons to be out here in this vast open place, so what did Lance have?

...nothing, really. 

He left it all behind. His family... his school... his entire future. And Pidge didn't know for certain, but she was pretty sure that Lance also had anxiety... and maybe even depression. He always put on a smile, but maybe that was just a front...

Shiro coughed lightly and Pidge looked up again. Shiro's eyebrows were pushed together in concern. "You okay, Pidge?" 

Pidge showed him a small smile. 

"Yeah, I'm fine. Say, Shiro? Do you by any chance know when Lance's birthday is?" Shiro looked slightly surprised, but then shook his head. "No, I don't. But hunk might." 

Pidge nodded. She knew that Lance and hunk were childhood friends so it would make sense if hunk knew. Pidge gathered her will and launched herself up off the cold ground. 

"Okay, thanks space dad. Imma go take a shower now, see you around the castle." 

As the bathroom door closed behind pidge's petite figure Shiro stood in the doorframe to pidge's room in more than mild confusion. 

"...space dad?"

 

...

 

Hunk sighed. It was a happy sigh. 

He had just finished a video chat with shay. The last time the castle of lions was there Pidge helped him set up a connection system so that he could chat with shay and the other balmerans, also, of corse so that they could contact them if there was any danger. 

Hunk still had nightmares of the evil intentions that Pidge had when she said to him "you owe me now." Hunk was slightly concerned at the time that Pidge had been possessed by a demon or something. 

A sudden and violent knock on his doors made hunk jump and nearly fall out of his chair. Hunk stuck his foot out and walked out of the fall, acting like nothing happened. 

As smooth as pudding.

Striding over to his door, he pressed the release button and the doors opened to reveal Pidge, her hair dripping with water and soaking the shoulders of her baggy, forest green t-shirt. Pidge looked up at hunk. 

Her feet were bare and she was wearing workout shorts, which revealed many faded scars from scrapes she had previously gotten on her knees. 

Hunk felt a strange sense of reverse dejavu, like this was going to happen again sometime near in the future. Shaking the silly thought from his head, "what can I help you with Pidge?"

Pidge stared hunk straight in the eyes and sucked in a short breath. 

"HUNKINEEDYOUTOHELPMELEARNHOWTOBAKEACAKESOTHATICANSAYSORRYTOLANCEBECUASERESONSPLEASE."

Seeing as she said this in one breath, Hunk was rather lost as to what was going on. "Um... Pidge I am sorry could you say that liiittle slower?" Pidge groaned and rolled her eyes. Her back slouched and she started to grumble. "Yeah, whatever. Okay. Hunk. I'm here to cash in a favor."

Hunk's eyes widened in surprise then narrowed in suspicion. (According to Pidge) hunk owed quite a few favors, but Pidge had never ever asked for help from him. Hunk shifted his weight from one foot to the other. 

He couldn't tell if he should be scared of what Pidge was plotting or if he should be happy that Pidge was finally opening up to him. "...what do you need?" 

Pidge blushed and her eyes flicked from hunk's eyes to the ground in rapid succession. Pidge was embarrassed? Was that good or bad? Hunk was kind of scared. 

"I-I need you to help me make a cake. Please." 

Hunk smiled. 

Apparently, embarrassing favors were good. 

Hunk felt like he had won the lottery, although he had no clue why Pidge needed a cake, this cake was going to be flipping badass. 

The best cake in the galaxy. 

"What are we waiting for?" Hunk inquired. "To the kitchen!"

Pidge offered a relieved grin. 

"Thank you, hunk."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!!  
> Tomorrow is Valentines day! I'm putting the finishing touches on my valentines chocolate covered sugar cookies with sprinkles! They look great so far! Super duper cute~!  
> I've already written about 1/3 of the next chapter so please keep an eye out because I'll probably post it somethime within the next 3 days!  
> Hey, how would you guys feel if I started a Billdip gravity falls fanfic?  
> Please let me know in the comments if you think it's a good idea!  
> ...If you don't, I'll probably just write it anyway XDD  
> I started steven universe recently! I'm on episode 15!!  
> Maybe I'll do some fanart soonly~ So far my fave charcter design is garnet but my fave character is probably pearl... XDD I feel kinda cliche!  
> WELP!!  
> If you guys would like to contact me I'm on IG as __animae__ and on tumblr as animaeline  
> Don't hesitate to send me a DM! I'm very lonely TT^TT  
> Anyways! See you next chapter!! Toodles!  
> Virtual Hugs!! XOX  
> -Animaeline


	6. What's flour??

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just the process of making an alien cake.  
> Nothing exciting, just your average head sized eggs and swords as knives.

"Okay, so, when making a cake you must first be sure that you have all of the ingredients." Hunk stated as he placed jars and vials from around the kitchen onto the center island-type table. 

Pidge looked at the jars skeptically. "Um... hunk, are you sure that these are the same as on earth? Like are you positive that this is even flour?" 

Hunk shrugged and picked up a small vial of some amber liquid. "Eh, well, I've tested most of these before. Like this liquid is basically like vanilla extract but with the consistency of raw honey. And the flour... I dunno, I can't read altean. It looks like flour, smells like flour, let's assume it's flour."

Pidge was slightly terrified but also sort of in awe at hunk's adventurous spirit. "But...hunk, isn't flour, like, scentless?" Hunk rolled his eyes. "Well, yeah, duh. It's flour."  
Pidge's eyes widened in surprise. Was hunk a secret evil scientist? 

Well, Pidge had confidence that Allura wouldn't leave lethal things just lying around so it was probably okay... but she wasn't so sure about Coran. 

Pidge shook the morbid thought from her head and looked readily at hunk. "Okay. So, what now?"

Hunk nodded and smiled. "First, you put the dry ingredients into a medium sized bowl and put it to the side for later. Here are the measuring cups."

Pidge nodded and started using a very very small spoon to fill up a measuring cup. Hunk stared at the surreal scene in confusion. 

"Um... Pidge... what are you doing?"

Pidge didn't take her eyes from the spoon as it made its way from the original container to the measuring cup. "Being... exact..." hunk rolled his eyes and walked over to where Pidge was. He grabbed another measuring cup and scooped the white powder straight from the container and flumped it into the bowl, creating a small cloud to float over the table. 

Pidge screamed. 

"HUNK WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU'RE GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF THIS CAKE!! HUNK WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! HUNK WHY!!!?" 

Hunk jumped at the sudden outburst. "Pidge, calm down. It's not that big of a deal. It doesn't have to be so exact."

Pidge's mouth popped open in shock. "Why... how could you say that? Why would they give us such exact amounts if they didn't want us to follow them to the millimeter?"

Hunk let a low breath of air blow from his mouth in mild exasperation. "Pidge. The instructions are more like a guideline or a suggestion. Have you ever followed the instructions exactly and the thing didn't turn out correctly? Sometimes you need to take risks for a better ending than the ones that the instructions determined for you."

Pidge's eyes widened. 

Did cooking and baking always come with life lessons tucked into hidden corners?

Pidge watched as hunk put the rest of the dry ingredients into the medium bowl, cringing every time that the ingredients spilled over into the table. "Okay, Pidge, step one is complete!" Pidge blew out a relieved breath with a 'oh thank god' before sucking that same breath back in when hunk hoisted a purple and green polka dotted egg the size of his head onto the table. 

Maybe it was even bigger than hunk's head...

"Huuuuuuuunk. What's... that??"

Pidge was bordering the edge of hysteria, starting to think that hunk was scarier than any of them knew. Her eyes looked as if they would pop out of her sockets, causing hunk too look at her strangely. 

"It's an egg, duh. Can you pass me that knife?" Pidge looked around to see where hunk was pointing and completely lost it. 

"HUNK IS THAT A FU*KING SWORD?!" Hunk gave Pidge a weird look before replying 

"um yeah? The protective shell is very hard and thick. In order to get it open you need to stab it straight down, and puncture the yolk while making two holes in the egg. One for the egg to come out and one for air to come in so that the flow is consistent. Do you wanna deal the blow?" 

The plain way that hunk said the words 'puncture' and 'blow' made Pidge gag and go all squeamish, so she just shook her head slowly to signal that she did not, in fact, want to stab the giant egg.

Hunk shrugged and said "suit yourself."

Hunk raised the pointed blade above his head as if he were taking part in a demonic sacrifice ritual, his smile showed all of his teeth and screamed danger. Pidge shivered and vowed to herself to never ever ever get on hunk's bad side. 

With an unbelievably fluid movement the sword pierced through the egg with a 'KKRCH-Shlunk-crKLE' sound. A sound that would haunt pidge's sleep for nights to come. Hunk yanked the Excalibur from the clutches of the gigantic egg, not even blinking when the neon pink fluids splattered across the table. 

They sizzled and bubbled as they became a darker shade of magenta then a searing blood red. 

"Uh... hunk? Should we be concerned about this very alarming chemical reaction??" Hunk rolled his eyes at pidge's fear. "C'mon Pidge. Cool your paranoia a little. It looks scary but it's perfectly safe! See!" Hunk held out the blade which was now coated in the same searing red as the splatters on the tables, in fact, hunk himself had what looked like blood splatters on himself as well. Hunk looked like a bloodthirsty soldier straight off the battle field. 

Hunk smiled. It was not very assuring. 

If anything, he looked like a stereotypical axe-murderer. 

Jason re-incarnated.

"All we need to do is wait, then the egg fluids will evaporate and the vitamins will mix with the air. This egg is actually a natural sealing of breathable air! It's made so that when the dragon-this hatches, the air around it will be safe for approximately up to a week! The good effects linger on those who get it on them longer, so feel free to touch it if you want. Once it turns blue it's not long for the physical world tho."

Pidge squeaked "DRAGONS?! Um... thanks hunk but I think I'm fine..." hunk shrugged again for the umpteenth time that day and turned back to the egg. Pidge had the very vivid thought that 'even lucifer was once an angel.'

Hunk beckoned her over "I said I would help you bake the cake, not make it for you!! Come on Pidge!"

Pidge hesitated but walked over. Firmly planting herself in the mindset that this was all a learning experience, not a crime scene. 

Pidge breathed out a sigh, and made another vow. 

She was never, EVER going ask hunk about the ingredients in alien food. 

Ever. 

...

Separately, the ingredients looked suspicious and terrifying. But its final form almost looked like a Terran sweet. 

Almost. 

Hunk nodded in approval at Pidge as she lifted the heavy platter onto a messenger robot that she had made when she was bored. The robot made two beeps as the machine accepted the coordinates to lance's room.

The lower half of its body turned and rolled out of the kitchen, the sliding doors opening just in time for the bot to make it out without knocking into the closed doors. 

Hunk turned to Pidge. "So what now?" It was pidge's turn to smile with pride. "I programmed that robot so that it'll alert me when it gets to its location, if the correct person picked it up and if the package was accepted." Hunk breathed out a silent wow, then smiled. "Holy crap Pidge color me impressed!"

Pidge beamed. No matter how terrifying hunk was in the kitchen, he certainly gave wonderful complements.

"So... so can you track where it is now?" Hunk's eyes were sparkling with genuine curiosity, which filled pidge's chest with an indescribable warmth, again, making Pidge very grateful that she wasn't out here alone. 

"Yeah, it's about two thirds of the way to lance's room. It should be at his door in just a little bit!" 

Hunk smiled contentedly and turned back to the kitchen to clean up the mess that was made by the powders and the leftover dough that was desperately clinging to the insides of the mixing bowls. 

A few short minutes passed while Pidge an hunk chatted animatedly about their current progeny and what they had individually learned about certain planets and aliens cultures. 

Allura walked into the sliding doors and turned to the two. Pidge was sitting on a counter and hunk was leaning against a table ledge drying off something that sort of resembled a whisk. She opened her mouth then closed it, clearly displaying confusion, which confused hunk. 

"What's wrong princess?" Hunk inquired as he placed a newly dried bowl to the side. Allura regained her composure and looked from hunk to Pidge. "Well," she started, "I was looking for the card key to the armory. I seem to have misplaced it, it's probably somewhere in my closet." Hunk and Pidge exchanged a look, because it was rather alarming that the castle even had an weaponry closet, much less that the key was lost. 

Allura shrugged. "Anyways, what in the stars did you two need truth powder for?"

Pidge's panicked voice came out as a choked squeak.

"Truth powder?"

"Um, yeah." Allura said as it was obvious, then pointed at the container on the table with the white substance that hunk had said was flour. 

"...I thought it was flour! Honest!" Hunk quickly replied to Pidge's cold glare. "Can we grab it before it gets to lance's room?!"

Pidge typed in the robot's serial code into her watch so that she could check the location. Her eyes looked up, filled with dread. 

"It's too late. Lance already accepted the package." Guilt and foreboding sunk heavy and cold in the pits of their stomachs. 

Pidge and hunk raced to the door in desperation, swerving narrowly around Allura. 

The left her alone in the kitchen, very confused and in the middle of a partially cleaned up mess. 

 

"...What's flour?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!  
> Schools been really rough... I can't write much right now. :(  
> Well, thank you for waiting in for are coming back, and thank you for reading if you just started! I love you guys, especially your comments.  
> Sometimes the little complements I get on this are enough to get me through the day!  
> So, really, thank you.  
> Virtual hugs!!  
> -Animaeline


	7. Out of the loop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance's sweet tooth satisfied, Pidge feels guilty and Hunk worries... like always.  
> And Keith gET ANGARY~~!

Lance stared at the ceiling from her stiff bunk. Her arms were tucked behind her head and her legs were crossed. 

Lance had ditched her red outfit for a simple combination of a white blouse with denim shorts. The pockets were accented with a floral patterned cerulean lace. 

Lance's foot bounced up and down in a rhythmic and irritated manner. The ceiling scape above her was smooth and void of color and shadow. Lance flicked her legs so that they were opposite of what they had been previously. 

they were still crossed and still flicking irritatedly. Lance couldn't figure out what was frustrating her so.

Lance groaned and rolled onto her side. Her room contained her bed a single wardrobe and a photo of her family that she had brought from earth. Next to her wardrobe was the entrance to a closet that was previously unused. Now it was filled with clothing that she and Allura had gotten on their last visit to the shopping mall. 

Lance closed her eyes she didn't want to see the photo of her and her family smiling together because it brought back so many wonderful memories that she knew would not be replaced anytime soon. Well maybe not by the same people but Voltron was basically a family no matter how painful it was to leave her original family behind on earth she still had people that she could talk with and connect to. 

Pidge was like a little sister, obnoxious but sweet. Shiro was like a father. Keith... Keith was kind of like that cousin that you didn't know you weren't allowed to marry when you grew up. Allura was like a mom and an older sister combined. Sweet, kind and very helpful.

Hunk... hunk was... a stuffed animal bear that you told all your secrets to. A cousin maybe? 

Lance sighed. This mind tangent was going nowhere fast so he abandoned the thought flow altogether. The small clank of metal on metal came from her door and reverberated around the room, echoing off of walls and corners. 

Lance ignored the sound and proceeded to turn so that her tired eyes were facing the wall. The sound came again, twice in rapid succession and much louder. Lance closed his eyes and continued to ignore the metallic sound. The sound kept getting louder and more frequent until finally Lance swung her legs off the bed yelling "ENOUGH! I'M COMING! JEEZ!" Lance stomped over to the sliding door and slammed on the button to open the doors. There was no one there, well, no one living at least. 

A small beep made Lance look down. A small robot balancing a dinner platter was waiting with a hand scanning screen for Lance to relieve it of it's package. Lance put her hand on the scanner and the robot messenger beeped three times in approval before leaving the plate on the ground and rolling away.

Lance bent down and picked up the plate. It was heavier than Lance had guessed it would be. The plate had a lopsided cylinder on it with awkward blobs of what seemed to be frosting surrounding it. Lance smiled. 

In clumsy green handwriting, a message took up the center of the cake. " I'M sORrY I TUrNeD YOu INtO a giRl wIThoUt pERmiSsion." Lance laughed openly for the first time since her race through the space mall. The cake had been delivered with a small fork wrapped in a napkin... hunk must have helped Pidge make it. 

Lance took the cake back into her room with her and placed it down on her bed. Lance took her pointer finger and swicked up a little bit of frosting. She put the finger in her mouth, tasting the sweetness of the frosting globs. Lance hummed in satisfaction. 

Lance had a horrendously powerful sweet tooth, and this was the first time since the padalins had left earth that Lance had eaten something so sweet. 

Lance licked at the residue sugar that had stuck to her lips. She unwrapped the fork and pulled out a bite sized piece of the lopsided sweet. The sliding door to lance's room slammed open, surprising Lance enough that she swallowed the bite only half chewed. 

"LANCE HAVE YOU EATEN THE CAKE?!" Pidge and hunk had both tried to get inside of lance's room at once so they had consequently accidentally wedged themselves into the doorframe. They were stuck. 

"Uhh... hey guys? You need a little bit a help?" Lance had thought that Pidge would have rolled her eyes, but instead she looked very panicked, which was rather unnerving to Lance. Pidge's expression was a weird mix of frightened and apologetic. "What's wrong Pidge?" Lance questioned. 

Pidge clammed up and looked down guiltily. Hunk untangled himself and they both popped into the room simultaneously. 

"Uh, Lance?" Hunk stepped forward and Pidge hid herself in Hunk's shadow. "Have you eaten any of the cake yet?" Lance nodded, starting to feel worried. Both hunk and Pidge groaned in unison. 

Flustered, Lance started to become scared as well. "What? What?? What is it? What's wrong?" Hunk looked up at Lance and Pidge looked down at lance's feet. "Um, Lance... do you, uh, feel any... different?" 

"Of course he doesn't." An unexpected voice from the door startled all of them. Allura had propped herself up with her back leaning against the doorframe. Her silver hair was gathered to one side of her neck so it all flowed collectively over her far shoulder. "Hunk, Pidge, come with me please. I need some help with... techie stuff. It's no big deal, Lance you can just stay here." 

Allura flicked her hair off of her tanned shoulder so that it cascaded gently down her back, she motioned for Pidge and hunk to follow her out of the room. Lance was left alone as he listened to the door's quiet 'swoosh-clanck' as it closed behind the trio. 

Lance had never been more scared to be out of the know. 

 

...

 

Allura looked between Pidge and hunk then sighed. "So I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you two accidentally fed Lance something with truth powder in it without knowing what it was." 

Hunk looked at Pidge and Pidge looked at her hands as they twisted uncomfortably. 

Allura let out a wry smile and put her hands on hunk and Pidge's shoulders. "It's okay, I'm not mad at you." Pidge looked up and hunk grinned in an awkward and embarrassed manner. "Okay, can you two gather everybody else to the kitchen area? Don't get Lance though. Do you two understand?" 

Pidge and hunk nodded then headed off in opposite directions in order to collect Shiro, Keith and Corran to congregate in the kitchen so that Allura could brief everyone on what was happening, well, everyone except Lance. 

 

...

 

The 5 people in the room were crackling with impatience. Hunk and Pidge were whispering theories of possible outcomes to this situation. Corran, Keith and Shiro were in another part of the kitchen casually conversing about what they had done during the day and why they had been called to the kitchen. 

The kitchen doors slid open with a click and closed again behind Allura with a swoosh. All eyes turned toward her. Her dress billowed around her ankles, flowing in an invisible wind. Allura cleared her throat and scanned her eyes around the room. Needless to say, everyone else shut up. 

"Okay, it looks like everyone's here." Keith raised his hand and Allura looked from Keith to Corran with confusion. Allura mouthed at Corran ' what do I do?!' Corran looked from Keith to Allura and shrugged. 

Allura looked warily back to Keith's hand and said "uh, yes Keith?" 

Keith put his hand down. "Where's Lance?" 

Allura nodded at Keith's question. "Lance is in his room right now. Actually, Lance is... well, the reason that we're gathered right now." Shiro raised a surprised eyebrow and Keith looked worried. Also, it looked like Corran was still puzzling over what Keith's raised hand signified. 

"Well what happened?! Is Lance hurt?" 

Allura shook her head. "No, Lance isn't hurt, well, physically. Not sure about emotionally... well, anyways, through one means or another Lance has ingested a completely harmless truth powder. The powder has no affect until Lance falls asleep. When he's awake tomorrow, he'll act... mostly normal. The difference is he will ONLY tell the complete truth, so everyone should be careful of questions and how you phrase your sentences... don't ask anything TOO personal. Also, tomorrow's events will seem blurry and dream-like to Lance. He won't remember any of tomorrow as if it actually happened. He'll think of it as a dream or just a thought."

After Allura had finished talking, the room was engulfed in a sort of shocked silence. 

After a few ticks in the quiet room Corran grew restless. "Guys, it's not a big deal! This was a tactic that altean royals used to root out spies and traitors, but we would never hurt them!... not without evidence at least!" 

Keith blinked, barely containing his rage. His fists were balled so that his knuckles were white and his veins stood out like a strange skeletal structure on top of his hand. "Did... did you just say it's NO BIG DEAL?! I don't know how it is for you alteans, but us humans can become pretty damn distrustful if stuff like this happens! PLUS! We don't know what secrets Lance wants to keep a... a secret!! SECRETS ARE SECRET FOR AN EFFING REASON!" 

Allura flinched but did not break her steady glare at Keith. 

Pidge stood up suddenly "Keith, stop yelling at Allura! It's my fault!!" Hunk hastened to stand up as well and immediately said "the fault is mine!" 

Shiro pushed his way between Keith and Allura's stare off. "Woah, woah guys. Let's just all calm down! I'm positive that it's no one's 'fault'! Mistakes happen! Little errors that life throws at us to make us panic. But if we stick together and stay calm, we can beat life's stupid games and come out victorious. All we need to do is work together and it'll work out."

Keith huffed. "Yeah, whatever." And stormed out of the kitchen, the doors sliding shut behind him. 

Shiro sighed. 

"Tomorrow is gonna be a long day."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha, I know I said that this would be out friday but... tuesday is okay too right??  
> I got it out earlier than planned~~  
> School is still... school...  
> I've been super stressed of late and that's why I've been putting so much time into this lolol  
> So... good and bad stuff have come out of my anxiety I guess.  
> I watched ALL of steven universe this past weekend lol so I;m gonna be doing some fanart soonly!!  
> If you would like to see my other stuff...  
> IG is at __animae__  
> and tumblr at animaeline  
> just like on here~!  
> Welp!  
> Thank you, as always, for reading!!  
> If you do check out my social media, please shoot me a DM!!  
> I would absolutely LOVE being able to talk to you guys more!!!!  
> Virtual hugs~!  
> -Animaeline


	8. Family.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit about Lance's childhood and a big bonding moment.  
> The Edge Lord Keith finally acknowledges a burning truth.  
> Hmm... I wonder what it could be~~

It was very early the next day when the crew members of the castle of lions gathered one by one outside of Lance's room. Keith was the first to show up. He had woken up sometime last night and couldn't get himself back to sleep, so he went to play guard in front of lance's door. 

The next people too show up were hunk and Pidge, who had come as a pair to make sure that nothing bad had happened. Next, Allura shuffled down the corridor in a shiny pink ankle length night gown. Allura let the others know that Shiro was checking the monitors and the lions before coming up. 

Shiro showed up a few ticks later and sat on the ground leaning with his back against the wall. Soon after, Allura's little mice friends came scurrying down the hall. Allura smiled and put her hand on the ground so that the mice could climb up to their usual spot on her shoulder. 

Lastly, Corran came jaunting down the hallway. His eyes widened at the sight of all the people at the door waiting for Lance to wake. "What are you all doing here?"   
Allura rolled her eyes, "same thing as you, dummy. We just all got here earlier than you."

Corran put his finger in the air. "Ah! But not all of you are here! I still beat Shiro!"

Shiro raised his hand from the corner. "I'm over here Corran." Corran's finger wilted a little. 

"Well, uh, I got here before the mice!!" Corran's smile was so genuinely satisfied that everybody hesitated to tell him that they had also beat him... well, everybody hesitated except Pidge. 

With no remorse and without looking up from the rubix cube that she had brought from earth Pidge simply said "shoulder." And the mice squeaked in agreement from their place on Allura's shoulder and in her hair. 

Corran grimaced. "Well, quiznak. Whatever. All that matters is that I am here." Allura nodded in agreement and beckoned Corran to come over by her and the odd group waited together in silence for the sleeping beauty to wake up. 

They didn't have to wait long because soon after a light hearted voice broke their grim silence. "What are you all doing here looking like the cover of a new hip indie band's debut album?"

Everyone launched to their feet, but Keith made it to Lance first. Keith grabbed lance's shoulders and stared straight into her clear blue eyes. "HOW DO YOU FEEL? ARE YOU OKAY? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!"

Lance blinked. "I kinda feel like that one time I accidentally walked into a seniors class in the garrison and had no clue what was going on. I think I'm fine? But not really. And, duh, you're Keith. Good morning to you too." Lance punctuated the sentence with a sarcastic roll of her beautiful blue eyes. "What's with you all this morning?"  
Hunk hesitated then stepped forward, towards Lance. 

"Uh, hey Lance? How about we go eat now." Lance showed a relieved smile and nodded. The group started walking down towards the kitchen. Pidge looked up over to Allura and pulled her behind the group, out of lance's hearing range. 

"Allura, couldn't this be seen as an opportunity?" Allura's eyebrow shot up. "What do you mean, pidge?" 

Pidge smiled evilly. "Well, I mean, we could use this to learn more about our fellow padalin, Lance!" Allura's eyes widened, different emotions flashed a crossed her face, conflicted. Eventually, her expression settled on a tentative smile. 

"...okay, just be sure to ask nothing too personal, alright?" 

Pidge nodded solemnly and put her hand up in a rigid salute. "Yes princess, I will try my best!"

Small giggles bubbled up in their chests until they were full out laughing together. Shiro looked back at Pidge and the princess. "What's up with them?" 

Hunk shrugged. "I don't know, I'm not a balmeran."

...

Once they had all gathered in the kitchen, food was served and Corran was helping Hunk translate and label various jars in the kitchen. Lance and Keith were sitting together, animatedly chatting about nothing in particular. 

Pidge and Allura had situated themselves at seats a little farther down from Keith and Lance so that they could scheme and brainstorm what questions they would ask Lance that wouldn't be too probing. Shiro was seated at the head of the table with Allura's little mice friends. 

The mice had been on a mission to see if any of the inner workings of the castle of lions looked as if it might break. As the mice pointed to an area on the map Shiro marked it with a small, red "X." 

Pidge and Allura moved to chairs directly across from Lance and Keith. Pidge had some questions written in a scribbled manner in blue ink on the back of her hand. Some of the words were smudged and hard to read. 

Pidge squinted at her hand, trying to read the first sentence. Allura groaned in impatient irritation. Allura leaned a crossed the table toward Lance, not wanting to wait for Pidge to de-code her own handwriting. "Hey Lance!"

Keith shut up and looked over at Allura "yeah? What's up?" Allura smiled guiltily, knowing full well that the consequences of her actions may be unforgivable. "I was wondering, why did you join the garrison originally?"

Lance looked embarrassed and rubbed the back of her head with her hand, twisting the dark hair around her fingers. "Well, back on earth I'm part of a big family. My biological dad walked out on us soon after the twins were born, I was 5 so I don't really remember much about him. Afterwards, my mother, who was a stay at home mom, had to start working which meant that I couldn't go to school, I had to watch over my younger sisters. My mom re-married when I was 8, but our house kept growing so she had to keep working." 

Lance sighed, her eyes looked as if they were gazing at a place that nobody else could see. "Our grandmother on my mom's side came to live with us because her husband had died from a heart attack. By the time I was 10 I had nine siblings. There was me, the twins, a baby girl, my mom's new husband had three daughters from his last marriage and my mother had taken three of my cousins under her wing because their parents had both died in a car crash."

Lance reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, laminated photo. The photograph depicted a younger version of male Lance, a lot of little girls, a tired pair of adults that looked as if they were in their early 40s held each other lovingly and an old woman watched from a wheelchair, holding two identical little girls on her lap.   
Lance pointed to the mini Lance in the photo. The boy had one of his younger siblings perched on his shoulders. 

"As the oldest kid of the family, when I turned 11 I started working, doing odd jobs at a local cafe. It was the cafe that hunk's parents ran, so luckily I became quick friends with hunk! Between working hours I studied and worked on getting a scholarship to the garrison because I had heard many different rumors that pilots were paid well. I saved up money by doing stuff like mowing people's lawns and by the time I was 14 I had enough money saved to do a recruitment interview at the garrison. 

"I apparently impressed the interviewers so I got a full scholarship to go to school there as long I was one of the top four in my class, which is why I was so competitive with Keith. On weekends when there was no classes I visited home to check in on them, help with the laundry, stuff like that. 

"My parents had been secretly saving up and surprised me when they started their own bakery and cafe!" Lance laughed lightly. "Their store became popular and we had finally achieved a steady income. The smaller kids helped with baking and cleaning while I went to the garrison. Over time I noticed something was wrong, so I started sneaking out of the dorms at night and taught myself how to eavesdrop on... well... garrison officials. 

"I went onto the roof that day when I found Pidge because I had heard whisperings that something big had conspired and that there was going to be a 'shooting star' that day. That's why I dragged hunk to the roof, and well, then we met Keith, grabbed Shiro found the lion and eventually ended up here."

At that point everyone had shut up and were listening intently to lance's story. Allura hesitated "wh-what happened to your father?"

Lance shrugged. "Dunno, I heard he died." The offhand way that Lance had said this sad truth sparked tears to well up into pidge's eyes. 

...Shiro was already crying. 

Keith, Allura and hunk were staring at Lance in shock. Hunk blinked "I-I never knew that about you... when you were working at my parents' place, you told me that you were just saving up for comics and toys and stuff..."

Lance shook her head. " I lied. I just didn't want you or your parents to worry. You are such a nice family and I didn't want you becoming my friend out of pity." 

Hunk shook his head. "Lance, no! You should've told me!! You've helped me with so many freaking things! Protected me from so many freaking bullies!! I would have WANTED to help you!! That's what friends are for, that's what family is for! Everyone here on voltron IS YOUR FAMILY." 

Allura nodded fervently in agreement. She clasped lance's hands into her own and stared intensely into lance's surprised stare. Allura's own eyes were watering, creating a shimmering layer of silver blanketing over her irises. 

"Lance. If you ever EVER need help, or just someone to talk to... please do not hesitate to come to me." Allura let go of lance's hands and ran around the table, her dress swishing at and around her ankles. Lance stood up, surprised as Allura hugged and clung on to Lance's slender from. 

Pidge messily rubbed her tears and dripping snot on her wrists and sleeves. She joined in hugging Lance, and earned a small 'ew' sound from Keith. 

Shiro walked over and started hugging the group. It was a group hug. Hunk sniffled and joined in on the hug circle. The mice and Coran joined soon after, leaving only Keith out of the group hug. Everyone turned to stare at Keith's oblivious expression. 

"What?" The stares continued. Keith rolled his eyes as a small blush of understanding creeped up over his cheekbones. "Ugh, fine." Keith stood up and joined the hug, sadly, he was within shiro's arm range so he was quickly enveloped in a suffocatingly tight hug. 

Lance smiled. "Thank for joining us, Edge lord." 

Keith turned his head away and muttered "yeah, whatever, 'ur welcome." 

Lance didn't see it, but Keith's ears were burning and a small, genuine smile had plastered itself into Keith's face. 

Keith was smitten. 

Keith was enamored. 

Keith was in love...

...With Lance, regardless of whatever Lance's gender is, was or would be in the future. 

Keith had fallen in love with Lance. 

 

And he had fallen very, very, hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!!  
> Guess who's going to HAWAII!!!  
> That's right~ it's ME~!  
> ...it's a 24 hourtravel time and I can't sleep in planes so I bet that the next chapter will be done very soonly.  
> I REALLY hope I don't have to sit next to my 10 year old sister the whole time...  
> I am happy that I can bring you guys this update before I leave, Please keep sending me comments!  
> There will be a lag for when I reply to them, but all the same I will be VERY happy to receive them!  
> That's all for now,   
> Virtual hugs for all of you!!!  
> XOXO  
> -Animaeline


	9. Side effects

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some more character development for Lance, and some more bonding between Pidge and Lance.  
> A little bit of bromance between hunk and Lance (just as friends tho~)  
> Lot's of feels and a very scary cliffhanger at the end of the chapter.  
> I feel kinda evil for writing this.

The rest of the day had gone... mostly smooth. 

There was one moment when the padalins were in the sparring room, practicing defense moves when Lance started staring at Keith as he was putting his hair back into a ponytail bun thing. 

"What? Is there something on my face?" Keith had asked, and Lance had responded by shaking her head and shrugging. 

"No, there's nothing on your face, I was just thinking about how hot you are."

Keith had blushed while Pidge and Shiro had chorused "oooooooh!" And Keith knew for certain that they would not let him forget it for as long as he lived... not that Keith wanted to forget Lance's words at all. 

At dinner Pidge asked hesitantly if she could see Lance's family photo again. Lance shrugged, but she smiled and said "sure" as she slid the slip of paper across the table at Pidge. 

She picked it up and stared at mini Lance's smiling face. In the photo, Lance had a band-aid over his nose and on his cheek. His t-shirt was a faded green that was covered in dirt matched with tan shorts that were obviously too big for him. 

"Hey Lance? Do you always carry this photo with you?" Lance looked up at Pidge. "Hm? Yeah, I always carry it around."

Pidge's eyebrows knitted together in the middle of her forehead. "If you don't mind me asking... why do you always carry it?" 

Lance looked sad for a moment but then recovered. "There was one time when I was about twelve when I had gotten amnesia. I don't really remember what caused it, but I was told I had been run over by a bus. I couldn't remember anything. Not my name, not my siblings names, not my mom's name. Nothing."

Lance pushed his spoof farther into the green gloop that was the regular meal on the ship. "Ever since then I've been scared that I'm going to forget... everything again. And I don't want to go through that ever again... because what if I disappear along with my memories... what if I'm just suddenly... gone?" 

Lance shook her head hard, sending her long hair in all directions. 

Lance looked down at her hands which were clenched on her lap, knuckles white. "That scares me. I don't want to forget and I don't want to be forgotten. That's why I flirt with... pretty much everything that breathes, because I want to imprint myself on as many people as I can. I want to know as many people as I can. I want to make a mark to prove that I exist." 

Lance closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again to look at Pidge, a new certainty in them. "I carry that picture around with me because I'm afraid that if I let my mind wander then it will wander away."

Pidge's heart ached for Lance. No wonder she hadn't told any of them this, because Pidge couldn't help but start to pity Lance... what else was she hiding from them? Pidge couldn't decide if she wanted to know the rest or not. 

Before Pidge could steel herself into asking another question Lance yawned and claimed that she was going to bed early. On her way out of the kitchen she smiled kindly at Pidge even though her eyes were sad. "Sweet dreams, Pidge. Sleep well." Then Lance was gone from pidge's field of vision. 

Pidge knew that everyone had secrets, but she hadn't known that secrets could be so sad. 

So very sad, for the holder... and for the confident. 

 

...

 

Lance had finally made it to their room, but she was feeling lightheaded and Lance's vision had been warping and swaying ever since her conversation with Pidge had ended. 

The hallway had seemed to be spinning and her feet had brought her crashing into many walls. 

Lance's head was pounding as the vague thought went through her head that she had to take a shower. Lance ditched her socks on the way to the bathroom and chucked them onto her bed haphazardly, one sock made it but the other flopped abandoned onto the floor. 

Lance stumbled about inside her room until she had made it over to her personal restroom. Lance tripped onto the bathroom floor's cold stone body. 

Groaning, Lance managed to strip off the clothing that she had been wearing for the day and step into the warm waters of the shower. 

Lance tilted her face up toward the continual stream of water and let it wash over her. The heat washes over her head like a blanket. White obscured her vision and she fell to the ground, out cold and dead to the world.

 

...

 

"Um Lance? Lance? I'm gonna come in! I will! Okay? I'm coming in!" Hunk had been waiting in front of lance's door for a solid 15 minutes. Hunk gingerly slid the door open. "Lance? Lance I'm coming in now!"

Hunk stepped into Lance's room. Besides the socks that lay scattered on the ground Lance's room was fairly clean. Hunk nodded in approval before noticing that Lance was nowhere to be seen. 

Hunk made his way towards the restroom, he heard water running but something felt off. 

From their days together in the garrison dorms, hunk knew that whenever Lance took a shower or a bath, they always sang... or at least hummed. 

The absence of Lance's usual melodies was very disturbing and frightening to hunk. He was about to open the door when he hesitated ... even if Lance was still Lance... Lance had boobs now. 

Was it... okay for hunk to check on him/her? Hunk shook his head. Gender had nothing to do with anything right now. If Lance was hurt or in danger, then it didn't matter was hunk... saw. 

"OKAY LANCE I'M COMING IN IF YOU CAN HEAR ME COVER UP WHAT YOU DON'T WANT SEEN!" Hunk opened the door and stepped into the room with his hand over his eyes. Peeking between his fingers Hunk surveyed the interior of the bathroom. 

Nothing seemed out of place... it just seemed wrong. The shower was running and the curtain was still closed, but there was no silhouette too be seen. Hunk let his field of vision fall to towards the ground as he stifled a small gasp. 

With a strangled squeak Hunk stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. 

His hands trembled and his eyes filled with tears. Hunk's voice came out as choked whine. "Lance. Lance!" Hunk hurriedly crawled over to Lance and cradled their head in his arms.

"Lance Lance Lance Lance Lance!" 

Hunk called his name over and over again as big, hot tears spilled over his lids and lashes. The water droplets fell onto lance's cheeks with small splashes, rolling onto the hard floor. 

"Lance Lance Lance Lance..." The sound of water from the forgotten shower mingled with the sound of hunk's voice as he crooned Lance's name incessantly.  
Lance's dark, wet hair splayed across the small bathroom's ground and stuck to her skin. 

There was a bloody gash across her forehead that created a bright stream of red that meandered its way over her eye and down her face. 

The stream forming drops at the place where her chin and neck met, falling to the white floor and dyeing where it met the ground scarlet.

"Lance Lance Lance Lance LANCE!" Hunk's murmuring quickly became louder and more desperate. He didn't know what to do. Lance's face was pale and her breaths were shallow and quiet. 

He needed to find help... but he didn't want to leave Lance alone like this. Hunk whimpered in fear and confusion. 

Hunk frantically looked around the small bathroom for something- anything! - that could help them. Lance seemed to be getting paler by the second. The pressing sense of urgency only ingrained itself even more into hunk's brain. 

Hunk gingerly set Lance's limp body against the nearest wall in a seated position. Hunk grabbed a washcloth and a soft bath towel from the shelf above the toilet. Hunk turned on the water and soaked the washcloth in the rapid stream that came from the faucet. 

He quickly folded the sopping wet washcloth into a thin rectangle and put it over lance's cut, trying to clean the wound and stop the bleeding. 

Like a mother swaddling her child, hunk gently wrapped the soft towel around Lance's naked body. Hunk couldn't leave Lance alone to go get help, an he couldn't just stay here with Lance alone. 

Hunk slid his arm's around Lance's slender body, towel and all, lifting his friend off the ground princess style. Lance's arms flopped downward towards the ground, lifeless as a rag doll. 

Hunk hugged the limp body to his chest and readjusted his grip on the slight figure, for the unwoken body was heavy as a corpse. 

Lance's body was shivering, tremors following down, tracing along the body's long limbs. 

Hunk's tears wouldn't stop, they couldn't stop. 

Hunk needed to find help and he needed to find it fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aloha!  
> I made it to Hawaii safely so here's the chapter I was working on on the way over~  
> BWAHAHAHA! Over 2000 hits!  
> I feel so popular >///<  
> Keith doesn't show up very much in this chapter... but trust me, he will be HUGE in the next chapter!  
> ...I have so many evil little plans for where to go with this!  
> I got these really cute heart shaped sunglasses so I am totally going to draw some of the padalins in them later!  
> Also, it has been confirmed, once I get back from Hawaii, I'm going to get actual prescription glasses.  
> The glasses I chose have super cute rims tho!  
> Well, that's all for now!  
> If you would like to chat or see pictures I've taken in hawaii (and all the crabs I've caught!!) please DM me on IG or tumblr!  
> IG @ __animae__  
> Tumblr @ animaeline  
> I love you all!  
> Virtual hugs!!  
> \- Animaeline


	10. Blood.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A N G S T   
> and blood.

It was hard for hunk to get through the doors while holding on to Lance's limp body. 

In order to get through the doors on the castle of lions, the handprint of a crew member was required to get through the doors. Which, is rather hard to do when both of your hands are full... with your best friend who desperately needs medical attention. 

Hunk whimpered, but forced back yet another onslaught of tears, keeping his face dry, and what he hoped was devoid of emotion... or rather, calm. 

As hunk stood at an impasse with the door, lance's weight seemed to grow heavier and his back screamed out in pain with every slow passing tick. 

Hunk dropped to his knees and set Lance's feet on the ground, still holding on tightly to their shoulders as Lance's head lolled backwards over hunk's arm. 

Hunk stretched his arm forward as far as he humanly could, reaching and hoping to feel the touch of the metal scanner pad needed to open the door. 

Hunk felt the cool metal and pressed his hand against the scanner, feeling the identification laser pass over the swirls and crevices of his hand that showed that Hunk was Hunk. 

The door slid open painfully slowly. Hunk picked up Lance again and groaned in pain, his muscles crying out for mercy. 

Hunk made his way out of Lance's room and down the hall at the speed of a drowsy sloth. 

Each footstep hit the ground harder than the last. Hunk started silently praying that alteans had something that resembled chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. 

Hunk stumbled dangerously but caught himself before Lance's body crashed to the ground. He sighed in relief. A close call, but a win none the less. 

Hunk's legs were starting to feel numb, but the kitchen door had finally come into sight and hunk had never misidentified that sole before which meant that help was only a few more steps away. 

Lance's towel slipped down off of her chest, but Hunk only had eyes for the finish line in front of him. 

Lance shuddered and groaned, hunk could feel the saltwater behind his eyes sting and try to push their way around Hunk's eyeballs and over his brown skinned eye lids.   
"It's okay, buddy. Just a few more ticks and we'll be in the kitchen. It's okay, Lance. Help is close."

Hunk re-adjusted his grip on Lance and scanned his hand, the kitchen doors slid open with an ominous sound somewhere between a screech and a squeak.   
A figure was standing directly in the doorway, about to bump into Hunk and Lance. 

 

...

 

Keith tapped his red converse clad foot against the marbled white stone flooring of the kitchen that rested directly beneath the main dining table. 

Keith was sitting directly in the middle of the long side of the table on the left side from the door. He was the last person remaining in the kitchen. 

Shiro and Coran had gone to check on the radar in the main bridge to settle their paranoia and Keith was pretty sure that Allura had already gone to sleep. 

Pidge had gone to work on Lance's gender altering bracelet and Hunk had gone to check on Lance one last time while the truth meds were still active and effective on Lance's conscience. 

So while all of the other crew members were doing important stuff, what was Keith doing?

Staring at an empty dining table. 

Alone. 

Keith sighed and roughly pushed his chair back from the table, feeling frustrated but not knowing at or about what. 

His silky dark hair fell over his eyes randomly as he stood up forcefully from the empty table. 

Keith shoved his hands into his pockets of his form-fitting black leggings, grumbling incomprehensible gibberish that echoed solemnly off of the kitchen's empty white walls.

Not willing to extract his hands from the comfort of his charcoal colored pockets, Keith blew a gusty breath of air at the offending hair strands, shaking them from his eyes.   
Keith slowly trotted across the room as he let a yawn escape his mouth. 

Maybe it was time for Keith to hit the sack as well. Just as Keith was about to pull his hand from his pocket so that he could reach for the scanner the door abruptly slid open. 

Hand only halfway out of his pocket, Keith blinked a few times in surprise, not really seeing what was on the other side of the door. 

When Keith's eyes finally adjusted to the obscure vision in front of his face, he immediately blocked it out by slapping a hand over his eyes. 

Hard. 

"W-W-W-WHAT THE HELL HUNK?! WHY IS LANCE NAKED?? I CAN SEE HIS--- HER?- HIS B-BREASTS!"

As Keith tried to back away from the door he tripped over his own foot and fell backwards onto the ground, his hands flying out in an attempt to catch himself before his body hit the ground. 

Keith's eyes popped open in surprise, but the look on Hunk's face made the red padalin's panic freeze over suddenly. 

Hunk's expression was pained and obviously distressed. Tear-tracks had imprinted themselves like dried up rivers on his sun-darkened cheeks. 

Rather than closing them again, Keith's eyes widened. "...What's wrong?" 

Hunk shook his head fiercely and water droplets welled up in his eyes again. 

"I-I don't know what's wrong... but... Lance was... floor- blood! Everywhere! And... I needed to find... help..." hunk's words were drowned out by sobs that racked through his body and made his large form shudder and sway like an earthquake, or a volcano ready to blow. 

Keith felt very lost, Keith couldn't handle tears very well, on himself or on others. Although, a single word of Hunk's gibberish had caught Keith's attention. 

"...blood? Hunk, did you say blood?" 

Lance's head flopped over Hunk's arm so that Lance's pale face was facing towards Keith. Keith sucked in a breath that sounded like a strangled gasp. 

Lance was so pale that she almost seemed like a paper that would have crumbled if touched. 

Her forehead was covered in a vibrant layer of crusted red around a cut above Lance's left eyebrow, its usual uplifting curve replaced by a pained, sagging silhouette - like a rooftop weighed down by too much snow. 

A stream of brilliantly scarlet blood was trailing down over Lance's closed eyelid, cheekbones and eventually off of her head and drip dropping off onto Hunk's arm which was diligently supporting Lance's head. 

Keith gagged and put a hand up to his own forehead. It felt as if Keith was feeling lance's pain. Keith wanted to cry, wanted to believe that this was just a nightmare, wanted to wake up. 

The contrast of the blood on pale skin made Keith want to hurl. Hunk sniffled "Keith. I don't know what to do."

Keith tried to get up quickly but slipped and fell flat on his face. Using his hands to launch himself off the floor and across the kitchen at full speed, Keith slammed into the wall next to the phone very forcefully. 

Keith winced at the impact but ignored the shock that zipped through his arm. Keith grabbed the phone and dialed the code for the castle intercoms.   
His voice was soon echoing off of every corner, hallway and room inside of the giant ship. Keith took a shaky breath and began to speak. His demeanor calm, but his voice was faltering and trembling. 

"This is Keith. I-I'm in the kitchen with Hunk and... uh, Lance. Lance in bleeding and out cold. We require assistance. Please."   
Keith set the phone-thing back onto its hook and warily walked back over to hunk and Lance. His legs buckled under his body and Keith fell to the ground in front of Lance and Hunk. 

Hunk was still sniveling, but had calmed down enough to whisper "Thank you Keith."

Keith could feel prickles at the back of his eye sockets and foreboding chills that coursed through his body. 

Keith could feel bruises forming on his knee where he had tripped and on his left arm where Keith had slammed into the wall, but they didn't hurt.   
If anything, Keith just felt numb. He couldn't focus of anything except Lance. 

Except Lance. 

'Cept Lance. 

Lance. 

LANCE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaahgh!!  
> This took me soooooo long to write. ugh.  
> I'm looking forward to writing future chapters because I HAVE SO MANY PLAAAAAANS!   
> Please look forward to it and give me comments!!  
> Again!  
> Please DM me on IG or Tumblr if you would like to chat!! ^^  
> IG : __animae__  
> tumblr: animaeline  
> VIRTUAL HUGS!  
> xoxo!
> 
> -Animaeline, over and out!!


	11. Wait and hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Technical difficulties can be frustrating, and potentially harmful.

There was lots of noise. 

Noise and movement. 

Keith's head had gone fuzzy with panic as he watched Shiro, Coran and Hunk carry Lance out of the kitchen-slash-dining room and down to the sick bay. 

Allura had been opening doors and clearing the way for the small procession on their hurried way down to the infirmary. 

Pidge was no where to be seen as the group of three men carried Lance's lifeless, rag doll body to the cryo-chambers. 

Allura was fluttering by the controls and setting them so that they could heal Lance fastest. Her hands were shaking and she was mumbling to herself in altean. 

She flipped switches and adjusted dials on the side of the healing pod. The only word that Keith knew in altean was "quiznak," and Allura was saying it... quite frequently. 

Hunk was crying again, his big tear drops made audible splashing noises as they hit Lance's skin. 

Keith's feet felt as if they had been glued to the ground, his head heavy and Keith felt oddly grounded. The thumping of his heart was so loud that it felt as if the ship were shaking beneath Keith's feet. 

Keith was scared. He didn't want to lose anyone else, he didn't want to go through that pain ever again. Nobody deserved to go through that, but for Keith, this was going to be the third time. 

First his mother, then his father, and now Lance. 

Hopeless and helpless, Keith's eyes were dry. It was like he wanted to cry but couldn't. With glazed eyes, he stared at Lance, not really seeing anything in front of him. A panicked shout broke him out of his dazed state. 

"NO!" Allura was frantically flipping switches and pressing buttons so hard her fingers. "No. No. No. Nononononononononono NO." 

Allura began slamming he fists against the machine in a state of half-crazed rage. Shiro dropped Lance's legs and ran over to Allura. 

He grabbed her from behind, enveloping her in a strangling hug so that her arms were restrained at her sides. She struggled at first, somewhat resembling a wounded beast. Eventually, she gave up and relaxed against Shiro's sturdy arms. Tears flowed down her face and bright cerulean blue blood trickled down her slender fingers as they shook. 

Allura turned and pushed her tear stained face into Shiro's chest, her battered fingers curling around the unique fabric of his shirt made specifically for training.   
Small, hiccuping sounds wormed their way into her shaky voice. "I-I can't... can't... it... it won't heal Lance because L-lance's body is different. It doesn't know him... it doesn't recognize Lance right now!"

Corran made a weird sigh-groan sound and proceeded to roll his eyes. "Damnit. Okay. Keith, grab the leg and follow me. Hunk, we're moving left." 

Keith hurriedly filled the place that Shiro had left open and helped hunk and Corran male their way over to a door that none of the padalins had ever even noticed was there. Corran said some stuff in altean and the door slid open, making an ear-splitting screech as it went. 

It was quite obvious that the room had not been used in quite some time. Dust covered the floor like a carpet, spilling out onto the clean flooring where they stood. Corran stomped twice and lights slowly filled the room with an eerie purple-blue glow, flickering from one brightness concentration to another. 

The smaller room had white, dust covered shelves that were home to various tinted vials of many faded colors. Corran said something else in altean and the room was enveloped in a blinding white. 

Hunk and Keith were blinded by the sudden flash. Hunk let out a little terrified squeak and held on tightly to Lance. Instinctively, the two squeezed their eyes shut, but Corran didn't so much as flinch. 

Keith hesitantly opened an eyelid to take a look at the room that surrounded them. After Keith had ascertained that he wasn't enveloped in the obnoxiously brilliant white anymore, Keith opened his eyes and tried to stifle a gasp. 

Looking over, Keith saw that Hunk's face had been screwed shut like he had swallowed an entire, completely peeled lemon and was just holding it in his mouth. 

"H-hey hunk. HUNK. Hunk, open your eyes." 

Hunk's face loosened a little and he peeked between his eyelids, out at the room around them. All traces of dirt, dust and age had been purged and purified by the brilliant light. 

Everything sparkled with a shiny glow that could only be described as "new." A white and blue chair had risen from a hidden gap on the newly unveiled silver floor.   
Following Corran's detailed verbal directions, Hunk and Keith helped place Lance on the cushioned seat. Shallow breaths made quiet rasping sounds as they escaped Lance's lips. 

Corran looked around at all of the colorful tubes and vials and stretched out his arms to full length, looked straight at hunk and Keith, smiled and said a very simple phrase. "Please exit the room!"

The two blinked. "Um... what?"  
"You know! Leave, goodbye, adios, sayonara, go away, scram, see you soon, hasta mañana, bye bye!!" Corran had shooed the boys from the room so quickly that they could just stare in confusion at the door as it snapped shut in their faces. 

The click of a lock soon followed, leaving Keith, hunk, Shiro and Allura outside. 

Waiting. 

Waiting. 

Waiting.

For that was all they could do. 

Wait and hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey you guys!  
> Sorry it's been so long since I last posted... like... more than a week!!  
> ...This chapter was weirdly hard to write.  
> But don't worry! Lance will be FIIIIIIIIIINE~! ...I think.  
> Thank you for waiting!  
> Please leave me a comment and I will totally respond.  
> DM/PM me on IG or Tumblr to chat!  
> Bye bye for now!  
> Animaeline, OUT!!  
> \----  
> IG - __animae__  
> Tumblr - animaeline


	12. "MOOOOORON!!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith gets salty and swears.  
> (I am TOTALLY old enough AND mature enough to post the f-bomb online!  
> ...maybe.)  
> Pidge bites keith.  
> Cause she can.  
> Beotch.

Some far off altean clock counted the passing ticks as they dragged by, besides that, there was no sound at all. They had all been sitting, waiting and hoping for a positive response- any response! - from the door that held Lance behind it. 

Somewhere in that long time, Pidge had shown up, snuck through the room and vanished into the door. Nobody had even noticed that the green padalin had made an appearance until she announced herself to Corran. 

She had briskly knocked on the door (scaring the shiz out of everybody else in the room) and appealed her case to Corran, who had forbidden entrance to all of the others.   
"I got the goods." Pidge had declared, which sounded like a suspicious drug dealer's line... but in a voice that was far too young and high pitched. 

The white doors had opened and closed, Pidge was gone before the surveying audience could blink. 

So, the waiting continued. Keith had started fidgeting irritatably while hunk had wandered off to get some food. 

Shiro and Allura where sitting awkwardly far apart from each other, each unsure how to react Allura's... ehm... tantrum and shiro's unexpected hug. 

Hunk was still gone and suddenly Keith couldn't take it anymore. 

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN THERE?! We can't even LOOK? What?! Does he think that none of us CARE about Lance?! That we can't help him!" 

Shiro sighed. "Keith, there's nothing we can do! None of us are alien medical experts, now are we? We just have to wait and hope for the best."

A growling noise case from deep in Keith's chest as he glared directly into Shiro's dark eyes. "Hope didn't bring my parents home, Shiro."

Each of Keith's hissed words hit Shiro like newly sharpened daggers, making the grown man wince as the dark haired youth deliberately hardened the name into two syllables. 

Shiro stood up and tried to walk over to Keith, but Keith was seething, Keith was pissed. 

"Wait, Keith, listen I-"

"NO SHIRO, YOU LISTEN!" Keith shoved the black padalin away, causing Shiro to stumbled back a few paces unsteadily. 

Allura launched to her feet and shoved herself in between the two boys. Her face was red and her eyes were bloodshot from crying. 

"KEITH, STOP."

Keith's eyes widened in fear and tears welled up on the edges of his bottom eyelids, but he turned his back and stalked away just as tears were pushing their way through his thick lower lashes. 

He furiously scrubbed at his eyes, desperately wishing for the water would stop flowing. His back shuddered and he stomped away from Allura's and Shiro's pitying stares.   
Keith fell back against the wall with a loud thud and slid down to the ground, pulling his splayed legs in towards his chest and forming a small, shivering ball. 

Shiro and Allura exchanged a glance. Feelings of hurt and confusion floated in the air between them like the particles of dust that dance inside of sunbeams. 

Slowly, slowly, they gravitated towards each other naturally and let gravity take them to the ground, leaving the three of them back to where they had started. 

Waiting and waiting in complete and utter silence. 

 

...

 

Every millisecond felt like an eternity in hell. 

A heavy silence thickened the air until it weighed down their shoulders, and dragged their moods deeper into the depths of depression than they already were. Allura and Shiro had ended up scooting closer to each other in a sort of silent making up with each other, a forgiveness in kind. 

'Good for them.' Keith thought. 

He had calmed down and was far less tense than before. His legs were spread out into a wide V-shape, with his fingerless-gloved hands lazily drooping on the floor in between his splayed legs. 

The tight, ball form had been abandoned, but the distance between himself, the princess and the black padalin had not lessened even a centimeter. In fact, the physical distance had most definitely increased. 

Keith had moved his body next to the door so that he would be the first one to see if Lance was alright when that door opened... and the door did open, but it was not Lance who stepped out. 

 

It was Pidge. 

 

She stepped out of the room, quiet as a mouse, but the screech of the sliding door betrayed her and she squeaked in mild surprise. All three pairs of eyes flew up to Pidge's guilty face like powerful magnets. 

"Uh, um... I'll just... be going then?" Pidge asked hopefully, but knowing full well that it was not going to go that smoothly. 

Pidge started to sprint towards the exit of the medical wing, but was soon stopped by Keith mercilessly as he reached out and grabbed the back of her green T-shirt roughly.

Pidge yelped, causing Shiro to stand up angrily. 

"KEITH! There is no need for violence!! Drop her!" Shiro panicked as Keith's hands tightened on Pidge's shirt fabric and slender arm. 

"I WILL NOT." Keith growled as the frightened Pidge struggled in his grip. Allura sat frozen in place, unsure how to react to the sudden burst of aggression. 

As Shiro inched closer to Keith and Pidge's battle for control, Pidge let out a roar (something like a battle cry) and twisted her body around in one fluid motion. 

From there, she used both of her hands to grab Keith's arm, and bit as hard as she could. 

Keith yelped and let go of the feral green padalin, holding his bleeding, bite marked arm as she sprinted away towards the exit, shouting insults the whole way out. 

 

"...AND I'M NOT SORRY FOR BITING YOU! MOOOOORON!" 

 

On her way out the door, Hunk narrowly avoided Pidge's blind rampage. He was holding platters of food on each hand, which had been meticulously piled high with snackages and other goodies. 

"...uh..." Hunk raised a confused eyebrow at the semi-surreal scene. 

 

"...Anyone hungry?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!  
> Almost 4000 hits! That's pretty dang cool!!  
> LANCE WILL BE OKAY, THE PRECIOUS CHILD WILL BE FINE. I PROMISE.  
> I've already started the next chapter too!   
> Pidge's small scene was wicked fun to write~  
> Again!  
> IF you would like to chat with me, or send me memes~~ just DM me at the places below!  
> IG -- __animae__  
> tumblr -- animaeline
> 
> I hope to see you all next chapter as well!  
> Adios!!
> 
> -Animaeline


	13. Waiting on Klance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confrontation and irritation.  
> Waiting for too long can make ANYBODY angry...  
> ... and make anybody do and say stuff that they don't really mean.  
> Stress is the Pandora's box of the hurt.

Allura had bandaged Keith's arm in thick, white cloth. He had insisted that immediate medical attention to the bite wound was COMPLETELY unnecessary. Keith's opinion was vetoed before he could even finish the sentence of his defense. 

Nodding at each other, Shiro and Allura worked together in flawless teamwork. 

The black padalin snuck up behind Keith's unsuspecting back...

...and strangled him in a very solid choke hold. Allura took advantage of Keith's momentary surprise and tied an extremely tight and complex knot around both of Keith's wrists. 

Between shiro's grip and Allura's rope bond, Keith was stuck. Allura tapped gently on Shiro's arm, letting him know that it was okay to release Keith's captive neck.   
So, Keith sat there, with his hands tied up in front of his body, looking very foolish and very, very silly. 

Allura clapped her hands and smiled pleasantly, making the red padalin cringe away in (what he would never admit was) fear. 

"Okay, Keith. You have four options!"

Keith raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "Four?"

"Yes, four." Allura held out 4 fingers in order to drive the point home. "Option one, you can struggle to get free as the rope tightens indefinitely, cutting off your weak, human circulation and eventually freeing your wrists of hands permanently- in other words, a very slow and painful amputation. Oh, don't look so concerned Shiro. I'll make sure he won't die, but he will have trouble if he still wished to be a padalin. Or ever fly again."

Keith stood stalk still, being very cautious not to move his hands, fingers or wrists. Allura calmly looked him over as she pushed a loose silver hair back behind her ear. She grinned again- Keith shivered. 

"That's a good pilot! Now, I would suggest keeping still like that if you want to stay one." She had said all of this in a non threatening tone, almost sing song. It was this composed confidence that scared Keith the most. 

Allura cleared her throat and continued. "Option two!! You can continue to refuse to let me bandage your arm, and stay there looking foolish. In that case, I will have Shiro hold you still forcefully while I bandage you. 

"Option three, I suppose that you could try to run, but I don't think that would do you much good. Final option, option four. You can stay still, I'll un do the knot and you WILL allow me to bandage your bloody arm. So? What will it be?"

Keith glared up at Allura's smug face and grumbled. "Mm...tion... fo...r."

Allura smirked and leaned down so that her face was closer to to his visage. "I'm sorry," her voice had an irritating melody to it. "I couldn't quite hear what you said, Keith. Would you mind saying it again?" 

Shiro chucked and Keith glowered. 

"OP. TION. FOUR."

Allura smiled victoriously as she stooped down and began to take out alien disinfectants for the bite. 

 

...

 

"So, would his hands actually have, er... fallen off?" Shiro whispered, stealing a quick glance at Keith, who was rubbing his wrists and muttering with a sour expression on his face. His forearm bandaged properly treated and wrapped. 

Allura smirked with an expression that obviously said 'duh, of course not.' But all she said was "I'll leave that to your imagination." 

The princess flicked her silver locks over her toned shoulder and traipsed away, humming to herself in a very self-satisfied matter. 

During the ordeal that was... medical attention for Keith, Hunk had set out all of the food that he had either gathered or made during the time that he had disappeared into the kitchen. 

Some of the dishes resembled food found back on earth. Some of them... well, did not. 

At all. 

When Hunk had finished setting up, the four gathered around the plates of goodies. Keith, well, he did join them -- rather begrudgingly though. 

While the four were eating, Pidge had snuck back in on tiptoe behind Shiro and Allura holding a small bundle in her arms. It took all of Keith's self control to stay calm as she stuck her tongue out at him ("yeah, real mature Pidge.") and slipped back into the hidden room. Keith rolled his eyes and went back to the weird purple stuff, which was somehow crunchy and fluffy at the same time. 

For a while, the only sound was the clatter of dishes and silverware as well as the sound of chewing. Evidently, hunk and Allura were uncomfortable in the silence - this was evident because they both started talking at the same time. 

"So,um..." "I was thinking-" 

"Oh! I'm sorry Hunk, I didn't mean to interrupt you!"

"No, no, Allura. You first!"

"Hunk- I insist. You first."

"No Alur-"

 

And Keith exploded. 

 

"CAN SOMEBODY JUST GO ALREADY?!" 

The room once again went silent, before hunk and Allura wordlessly started playing rock-paper-scissors to see who would speak first. 

Keith audibly face palmed. Honestly, it was more like he had slapped himself. 

Allura pumped her fist up to the ceiling in victory while hunk groaned in defeat. Shiro, who had been incredulously observing this strange interaction raised an eyebrow as a silent inquisition. 

"Allura, when did you even learn how to play rock-paper-scissors?" Shiro hesitantly asked, as if he was wondering, worrying if the question would offend the princess.   
She shrugged. "Pidge taught me." She cleared her throat and stood up before addressing the three padalins that were directly in front of her. 

She cleared her throat with a small 'eh-hem' and began a very clumsy ad-lib speech. 

"So, as you all know, we have been living side by side for quite a while now... and... uh, I-I think that we don't really know enough about each other! Like, I don't know your family's names, what your favorite color is, if you have goals that you have been working towards since you were small... I don't know any of it..." 

Her voice trailed off as she let the silence absorb her wayward thoughts. Shiro smiled. 

"So, you want to know more about us?"

Allura blushed, but nodded slowly. 

Hunk looked back and forth between the two of them, his own cheeks pinking a little. Keith unceremoniously rolled his eyes and whistled loudly. 

"GET A ROOM YOU TWO. The sexual tension is suffocating." The red padalin, who had been sitting somewhat quietly through Allura's words was irritated. 

But so was everyone else...because... well, they had all been waiting for a ridiculously long time for Lance to get out. Hunk face palmed and Shiro (white) became Aka (red). Allura turned on her heel and zeroed in on Keith. 

"I don't need your chiding KEITH." Allura snapped at Keith angrily, "The same could be said about YOUR major crush on Lance!"

The whole room went silent as all eyes floated to Keith's shocked face. A single word filled the room, loaded with too many emotions to name. 

 

"I...What?"

 

Allura rolled her eyes and smirked, puffing air from her cheeks straight into Keith's face, causing him to flinch violently.  
.   
"What, you thought we wouldn't notice? Pidge even gave you guys a ship name for crying out loud! You are so quiznaking obvious."

Keith's eyes widened and Allura realized she had taken it to far. 

 

 

"I... I have a crush... on Lance?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey you guys!  
> Sorry I was a little late in releasing this chapter... finals are coming up soon and I'm trying to improve my grades before the quarter ends... whoever put chemistry in the common core is Fu*king evil...  
> Well, summer is just around the corner and the play is in two weeks!  
> My art classes have been lots of fun and I can't wait for next year when I get to be part of the MAJOR arts program at my highschool! I'll spend at least half of everyday doing what I love!  
> Well, that's still a summer away, I've got to focus on making it to the end of this year... I hope I survive... wish me luck.  
> Thank you to everyone who checked out my new MLB fic "I don't need a hero."   
> I'm very excited to be able to contribute in the way of fanfiction to another wonderful fandom!  
> I made a few references in this chapter so maybe you should read back through an try to find them! lol :)  
> Anyways, as always, I hope that you enjoyed reading this chapter as well!  
> I've planned everything out all the way to the end and have no plans to rush it~  
> So I can safely tell you that we aren't even at the halfway point yet lol  
> Maybe halfway will be in like... 4 or 5 more chapters tho!  
> Still on the topic of plotline, when undercover eventually does end I will TOTALLY have another voltron fanfic running by then if I haven't released it already! I hope that you'll subscribe to my account and stick around for my other stories!  
> Thank you very much for staying with me all the way to the unlucky number 13!!  
> I hope that you'll stay with me as well...  
> If you wanna chat with me, Instagram @ __animae__ and Tumblr @ animaeline  
> I've already made a new friend due to this fic and I'm very happy to have had the luck of becoming aquainted with you, even if it is just over the internet!   
> From Lapis to Saphire, you know who you are!  
> Also, a shoutout to my friend Grape (aka artgirlperry) for pushing me irl to get my chapters out~!  
> And a BIG thank you to anyone who has ever had ANYTHING to do with this fic!  
> Thank you for the wonderful Kudos, Comments and for every hit that this thing gets!  
> I check back daily and you all encourage me to keep on keeping on!  
> Virtual hugs!  
> -Animaeline


	14. Blackmail bank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A... Very awkward family meeting.

Nobody had said it, but they were all thinking it. 

Keith loves Lance. 

Another thing that nobody had voiced (but they were all thinking), was the very solid fact that the color of Keith's face was a perfect match for the color of his lion.

In simpler terms, he was blushing very, VERY hard. 

It was as if the red padalin had gone into shock. He was tracing circles on the floor in front of him where he had backed himself into a corner. 

The door to the hidden medical room had swished open. Keith lifted his head hopefully, springing out of his seated position... only to sink back into the corner, gloomily, when only Pidge exited the white doors. 

One of Pidge's eyebrows shot up and she gave Keith a weird look. Shiro waved at her to come over to the other three that were waiting. 

She shrugged and sauntered over to the circle of food where Shiro, hunk and Allura sat separated from the red padalin. 

As she flopped down, her legs criss-crossed, Pidge nabbed a small snack-thing that sort of resembled a pig-in-a-blanket. Except not. Because it was teal. And purple. 

"So," Pidge stuffed the food into her mouth and tried to talk around it as she was chewing. "What's up with McEdgelord over there?"

Hunk and Shiro exchanged a glance, as if silently trying to decide weather to tell her or not, sadly, their telepathy was wasted because (clearly) Allura had had too much drama for one day and was obviously sleep deprived. 

They all were. 

"I screwed up and overloaded Keith's brain by letting him know he had a crush on Lance." Allura rolled her eyes irritatedly then watched Pidge to gauge her reaction. 

Conflicting emotions flew over Pidge's face. It seemed as if she were somewhere between "'bout time." And "YOU DID THIS WITHOUT ME?!" 

The latter one won. 

Pidge gasped theatrically and held an offended hand up to her chest. 

"Please tell me someone recorded it at least! I've been waiting for this for a very long time! What about my precious blackmail material?!"

Shiro raised an eyebrow at Pidge incredulously. 

"...you collect blackmail material?" Shiro seemed as if he were hesitant to ask the question... mostly because he was afraid to know the answer. 

Pidge smirked, a familiar evil glint shining within her iris. "Oh yes!" She chucked at Shiro's horrified expression gleefully.

"I call it my blackmail bank and I have dirt on literally EVERYONE I've met. Rumors are a terrifying and delightful thing when dealt with properly! Of course, I couldn't have started this all on my own, now could I? It was originally Matt's idea, but then I hacked his laptop and stole the intel... and made the bad decision to look in his browser history... it was a terrible decision... so many things that couldn't be unseen... too many things... so many memes..."

Pidge looked off into the distance for a moment, then shivered as if she were trying to shake off the memories. 

Shiro blinked. "Is... is that why you learned to hack?"

Pidge quirked an eyebrow at Shiro and grinned, shaking her head. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no! It's HOW I learned to hack!" 

Pidge's expression was rather hard to describe. To call it evil... would have been wrong. 

Maybe maleficent, or crazy? Well, whatever it was, there was a glint in her eye that made everybody in the room scoot away from her by just a few centimeters. 

 

...

 

Keith had rejoined the group and Pidge had somehow regained the trust that was lost... that, or everyone was just hungry and wanted hunk's food. 

Hunk felt pride that his snacks brought the group back together. The warm-fuzzies of success overlapped with the heavy worry about lance's condition. 

The main reason that Keith had abandoned his corner was because Pidge had made a jab about how Keith was Princess peach and Lance was Mario. 

Allura had taken it seriously. 

Her eyes widened and she quickly turned her head toward the red padalin. "Keith, you're a princess?!" 

Keith had gotten irritated but it brought him out of his crazed mumbling. "HELL NO IM NOT. PIDGE. C-can you please shut the quiznak up?"

Keith was shaking from trying to contain his anger, his cheeks reddened with embarrassment and frustration. He closed his eyes and counted his breaths as he slowly pulled the air in, then pushed it out until he was calm again. 

Pidge had made some sort of jab about the gender rolls being reversed or something, but Kieth hadn't really heard her so he figured it wasn't worth getting angry over. 

Huffing, then sighing, Keith made his way over to flip between hunk and Allura on the ground. Grabbing a cup of gurgling orange liquid, he fearlessly chugged it. 

All eyes were on Keith as they gauged his reaction. 

The orange drink was sweet. 

Keith smiled. 

 

A familiar male voice broke into Keith's calm, scaring and exciting him at the same time. 

It felt as if his heart would burst when he looked back at the door to see a male Lance, who's weight was being supported by Corran. 

"Hey!" Lance seemed slightly peeved.

"You guys are having a picnic without me?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I signed on to post this chapter and saw that I had exactly 200 kudos! How Cool is that?!  
> Thank you so much for all of your support and I hope that you continue to read and leave encouraging comments!   
> Thank you very much for sticking around with me!  
> I hope that you enjoyed chapter 14 as well!   
> Please look forward to the next update~  
> I can't wait to read the comments you guys leave behind!!  
> Virtual hugs!  
> -Animaeline


	15. Bad puns, tears and guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance finally went back to his original body as well as exited that hidden medical room,  
> But the time for fluff has not yet arrived.  
> Sorry not sorry. XD

"...Lance?"

 

Curious eyes flicked between Lance and Keith as if they were watching a table tennis match. 

Well, all except Pidge, who had this obnoxiously smug expressive look of pride plastered into her visage, that Keith would have described as "just begging to be punched."

"Uhh, yeah, that's my name? Need something?" 

Keith opened his mouth to speak, but his quiet words were soon overpowered by a cacophony of voices, voices with too many questions. 

"Lance!"   
"How are you male again?!"  
"How do you feel?"  
"Are you hurt?"  
"What happened?"   
"Are you okay?"   
"Why did you faint?"   
"What was the cause?"  
"Is your penis still the same size?"  
"Did your hair like... grow backwards or something?"   
"Are you hungry?"  
"Is there any numbness?"   
"Coran, how did you treat him?" 

Keith grumbled and backed away from the crowd, it was the healing pod all over again. "Wonderful. " 

Lance was smiling but his eyebrows had been knitted together since he and Corran had exited the medicine room. Corran' face was full of concern as well, his usual jubilant expression gone, it even looked as if his mustache were drooping. 

The incessant chattering flow of questions continued ceaselessly, so Keith took it upon himself to push to the front of the crowded grouping. 

Staring Corran in the eyes despite the height difference, Keith took a deep breath then swallowed hard

"What's wrong with Lance?" 

Corran looked scared... he looked seriously frightened. His eyes nervously flicked from Lance to Keith and around the now silent circle, ending back on Lance. It was as if Corran were unsure of what to say, or rather, what he was allowed to say. 

Lance, although he wasn't looking at Corran, Lance unfurled his arm from around Corran's shoulders. Corran flinched and flung his arms out in front of Lance as if the mustached man were afraid that Lance would fall- which was understandable seeing as this whole ordeal was over Lance fainting. Lance smiled tenderly at nothing in particular and reached out a shaky hand to grab Corran's hand. 

He missed. Lance started to fall forward into Keith, and Keith did his best to support Lance's weakened body the best he could. Lance turned his face towards Keith's and Keith cheeks reddened, suddenly feeling uncomfortably close to Lance. 

Lance traced his hand up Keith's shoulder to the back of his head, feeling his hair. Keith was suddenly hyper aware of everyone's eyes of them. With nowhere else to look Keith looked down at Lance and began to notice something was off - other than the fact that Lance couldn't really stand properly by himself. 

Lance's mouth was turned down into a grimace of impeccable concentration. It the sheer surprise at seeing Lance... frowning, almost distracted Keith from Lance's eyes. Instead of the normal cerulean hue that his eyes usually had, it seemed as if they were misted over with an unnerving layer of white. They could have even been described as 'milky.'

"Keith? Mullet? That's you, right?" Lance looked expectant and hopeful, a small smile ghosted over his lips, but he was very very unsure. And that hesitation scared Keith, because Lance was the type of person to jump in and try literally anything. The type of person to remember someone's name after the first meeting. The type of person who calculated everything perfectly but never pointed out the flaws of others. 

Lance was not the type of person to be unsure. 

"Lance..." Keith voice shook. "Lance, what happened to your eyes?" 

Lance shrunk back a bit, withdrawing the hand that had fingers tangled in Keith's dark hair. His other hand tried to push away from Keith. Lance felt trapped. 

He wasn't ready to tell them, but it seemed he had no choice right now. Keith was holding him up, which also made it so that Lance couldn't escape... not that he would be able to get away in any case. 

Lance sighed heavily then pasted his best false smile he could muster onto his face. 

 

"Hey, so um... it LOOKS like I'm blind now?"

 

Although Lance couldn't see the reactions laid on the faces of the residents in the castle of lions, it sure was something to hear. 

Unsure of who did what, somebody began choking on something they were eating. It sounded as if another person had fallen to the ground or something. A plate shattered and small circular things rolled over lance's bare feet (that was probably hunk.) Someone put their hands onto his back (Lance was pretty sure that was Coran.) Shiro's familiar voice simply whispered a quiet "what?" Soon followed by Keith pulling him into a hug that Lance couldn't even see. 

It was rather disorienting. 

"It's okay," the red padalin murmured into the blue padalin's ear.

"It's all going to be okay."

Warm, wet drops fell onto Lance's shoulder. Was Keith... crying? 

Lance, at a loss for what to do, awkwardly patted (what he thought was) Keith's shoulder blade as heavy tears began to run down Lance's suntanned cheeks as well. 

"Oh, come on mullet! If you cry... I'm gonna cry too and I don't SEE any sense in that!" 

Despite his awful pun and large smile, the tears kept flowing and Lance wrapped both of his hands into Keith's shirt fabric, desperately trying to keep his cool as his bravado and facade crumbled and fell away, his expression betraying him. Lance sniffled, burying his now useless eyes into the nook of Keith's neck. 

"Um, I'm sorry,"

"Shh, don't be."

"I'd *hic!* like to um... stay here for a little bit longer please..."

"Yeah, n-no problem Lance, take your time." 

The only sound that reverberated through the silent medical hall were the clinks of Hunk cleaning up the broken dishes and runaway food as well as sobs of Lance as he clung to Keith, like he would disappear if he weren't holding onto something. 

Pidge felt sick, because he had a hunch of what caused this. It was the cake. It was a side effect of the truth powder. It was all her fault. 

Pidge thought she would hurl all over the medical bay's shiny floor. 

Her eyes burned and prickled with the threat of tears. She felt useless, even destructive. 

She had to know. 

Know what caused this, what actually happened. 

And she had to know soon, because she could already feel the guilt eating away at her mental health. 

At her sanity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys I... um... I'm sorry?  
> I didn't mean for the chapter to get this dark I just got inspired by the new Doctor who season and... uh... yeah.  
> So, I started a few new things since the last chapter!  
> I started making a webcomic! Here's the link if you'd like to check it out! (and by that I mean PLEASE LOOK AT IT.)  
> https://tapas.io/episode/713907  
> I've also made a patron and a Ko-fi in hopes of making a little money with what I love to do, so if you can, please support me at either of the links below!!!  
> https://www.patreon.com/Animaeline   
> https://ko-fi.com/Animaeline  
> Thank you!  
> And again, I'm very sorry for how sad the chapter got, I was just in the flow and wasn't really thinking about what I was writing down and then... this happened... oops...  
> Well, Until next chapter you guys!!  
> Shoot me a comment or DM me on instagram @animaeline if you'd like to chat with me!!
> 
>  
> 
> -Animaeline


	16. The powers of the mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly technical jargon and explination.  
> This is gonna go on for like... another chapter and a half.  
> oops.

Once Lance had stopped crying, he immediately fell asleep in Keith's arms. 

Hunk, Shiro and Keith worked together to carry Lance gently back to his room. Through the hallways to lance's quarters Pidge and Allura fluttered nervously behind the procession, unsure of what to do or if they could help. 

Corran had stayed behind in the medical wing so that he could tidy up. It was agreed that after they had put Lance down so he could rest that everybody would regroup with Corran so that they could hear about what had happened. 

Pidge felt as if her bones had turned to jello, it was all she could do to silently follow behind the others. It felt as if they were all walking away from her. 

As if they couldn't even stand to be near her. Pidge shuddered as a chilling image cascaded over their thoughts. 

Disappointed glares of all those she knew and trusted. 

Voices whipped through her head like a tornado of blades, cutting up every peaceful and happy memory that Pidge had left. Blotting out every emotion that could have been considered good, driving her into a mental corner. Breathy gasps left her lungs, her head feeling as if it were going to float away in zero gravity. 

Zero gravity. Space. A place where no one can hear you scream for the lack of matter that the sound needs to go through to create an impact. 

Pidge was so light headed. Even though they weren't anywhere near a star, Pidge felt as if she were incased inside of a thick layer of helium. 

She couldn't breathe. 

Her throats was closing up. 

Her eyes were tearing up. 

Her mind was filling up. 

Her world was breaking up. 

Corran cleared his throat and looked at Pidge expectantly. 

Everybody was looking at her. 

Impatience laced the air. 

A tear trailed down her pale face as she looked around wide eyed at the shocked and surprised expressions directed at her. 

Another tear slipped down her cheek, big, hot and wet. 

Pidge shook her head violently, water droplets scattering frantically. 

"I-I'm sorry..."

 

...

 

After Pidge had calmed down a bit (and mostly stopped crying) Coran began to speak to the gathered members. 

"In order to take the questions as they appeared, the first thing that will be answered will be on the subject regarding Lance's gender and sex. Pidge, if you would." 

Pidge stood up on shaky legs and walked over to where Corran was standing in front of the seated ensemble. 

"U-uh, so you all know about how like fifteen and a half chapters ago I changed Lance into a girl? Well, by utilizing the formula's contents and ingredients it was possible that I could convert the medicine's powers and reactions could be turned into electricity and held in a nano sized chyro pod using the balance of the material causing a-"

Shiro cleared his throat loudly, while he was glad that Pidge was feeling better (explaining technical stuff with a HUGE grin on her face, stuff that was way out of their league of understanding. 

"Ah!" Pidge looked down at her bare feet with a small embarrassed smile. "Sorry, rundown, short, right." Pidge gave two small coughs then once again faced her audience.

"Um... so, there's uh an electronic thing in lance's bracelet that harvests his brainwaves and uh, syncs with whatever gender he OR she wants to become at the moment... since it is electric it does have to be charged on a regular basis. It has a charging port as well as solar power in case we are near a star or something...I wished I'd made this BEFORE I tried to sneak into the garrison..."

Pidge was quiet for a moment then started again as if she had forgotten to mention something important. "Also! The bracelet can still be used while charging and, uh, whatever gender Lance stays as the longest will be the form that Lance will take when the bracelet is off. Like, if we took the bracelet off right now he would go back to being a she."

"Which is wonderful! If we introduced this back on earth we could make transitioning so much better, so much easier for transgender and also gender fluid people, gender neutral too I guess... but I'm not exactly sure how the bracelet would interpret that. Cause like when you-"

"How will it impact him?" Keith's abrupt question suddenly cut off Pidge's words and chain of thought. 

"What? Oh, well it won't hurt him. It'll be a bit confusing since his thoughts are what the body takes form from, so if Lance's mind wanders he might rapidly change from one body to the other, I can analyze his brainwaves and accordingly make the changes less... frequent. But this is only after I get like, a few weeks of data." Pidge counted off on her fingers as she tried to figure out how long it would take to stabilize the bracelet's functions. 

Keith blinked, most of what she had just said had gone right over his head, except for one thing. 

It wasn't going to hurt him. 

There were no HARMFUL side effects... Keith made a mental note to threate- ASK. Ask Pidge about the other possible side effects.

After a few more clarifying questions, Pidge sat down and it was Corran's turn to speak. 

The mustached, middle aged man stood up wearily and made his way back to the front of the group. 

He looked so tired. 

So upset. 

So sad. 

Somebody needed to get this man a cup of hot chocolate. They all needed something sweet right now, because once Pidge's cheer at explaining her invention had vanished all minds went back to the issue at hand. 

Corran cleared out his threat and waited a moment, looking over the worried and concerned faces of the residents who all lived within the dormitories of the Castle of lions. 

"Eh hem, so, I will now explain to you the severities and um, causes of the blue padalin's uh... sudden ocular inhibitions."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOWSIE!  
> That was quick~  
> I wasn't expecting to have this done for like... another two weeks!  
> Well, whatever I guess lol  
> GUYS!! SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE! school gets out on the 19th of june  
> and I'll be turning 16 on the 28th of june~  
> ...thats kinda a scary thought.  
> Welp, I'm gonna try and get my permit as well as my first ever job this summer...  
> it will be a summer of adventure!  
> Wish me luck and I'll try my best to remember to post over the summer as well!!  
> Love you all!!  
> -Animaeline, over and out!


	17. Punch me.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> T h e AN G s T iS Ul Tra S uPeR INt eNSe Ma N DudE
> 
> ((I'm too lazy to write a summary so you'll have to do with this.))

Coran twirled his finger around his mustache in an effort to calm down... which is rather hard to do when almost everyone you know is staring at you waiting for answers. 

The oranged haired altean cleared his throat and closed his eyes. 

"Eh-hem, so... as you are all aware, the blue paladin is having some... trouble with his eyes right now. I would like to proceed the explanation with the main idea of nobody being at fault."

Pidge and hunk shared a worried glance and Keith's glare hardened. Shiro's face was blank and void of emotion besides the small, furrowed crease between his thick eyebrows... and it looked as if Allura was barely holding back tears. 

"Lance's lack of sight is directly correlated with his bio systems rejecting the altean chemicals. When he was hit with the truth drug, all of his systems were weakened, and the slip and fall in his restroom area caused Lance to hit his head and his ocular nerves disconnected.   
It appears that Lance also got a very, very horrid concussion and the only way I could derive the injury from his brain, was to direct it at his eyes and normalize however his condition was at the moment... unfortunately I did not know how fragile human's ocular functions were...  
...and... and Lance may never see normally again." 

Coran coughed to hide the quick motion of wiping a tear away from his lower lashes. 

Pidge spoke up, slowly makeing her way to her feet. 

"I might be able to program a way for glasses to make it so that Lance can see... but as I said, his eyes will never again be able to see without help." 

Coran began to choke up and fell silent. Waving Pidge up the the front of the group, Coran took her place on the ground. 

"Uhh, so, last part of the technical jargon. The pod will not be able to heal his eyes. Because lance's blindness has been... um, 'normalized' the pod will not notice that anything is wrong with him. Also, Lance will be unable to use the healing pods until his body has returned to it's original state... male.   
I do not know when this will happen or... or if it is even entirely possible. I am a technician, a pretty good one at that! But, science is not magic, and without testing the final results of the bracelet... it is very unclear how Lance's physical form will react when the bracelet it off of his wrist."

Keith bristled. 

A low growl came from the back of the red padalin's throat, a sound that seeped danger. 

"YOU- YOU MEAN TO TELL ME... THAT LANCE COULD BE ETERNALLY STUCK INSIDE OF AN UNFAMILIAR FORM WITH A VISION DEFECT THAY WILL INHIBIT HIS ACTIONS FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. AM. I. UNDERSTANDING. THIS?!"

Pidge's eyes widened in fear and shock before a look of resignation swept over her facial features. She nodded once, a drab grimness setting in her soft brown eyes. 

Keith stood up in a flash but Shiro held him back. The red padalin's angry voice yelling Korean swears at a top volume roar. 

Upset voices and shouts echoed all through out the castle of lions. Keith yelling at Pidge, Shiro yelling at Keith, Allura sobbing on the ground and hunk crying with her. 

Coran was simply zoning out... it was overwhelming... it was too much... it was far too much. 

Pidge walked straight up to Keith, who was struggling to break free of shiro's grip. 

She stared straight into Keith's rage flooded eyes and said two simple words that shocked everyone in the room into silence. 

 

"Punch me."

 

...

 

Lance's world was dark. 

So very dark. 

He started to hyperventilate, his claustrophobia kicking in as per usual in terrible situations. Lance flailed his limbs and blinked out tears, he soon realized that he was on a bed. 

He hastily ran his fingers over limbs and his chest... just to make sure that they were still there, and almost everything was!

Except for the two defining features of a female body that Lance had just become accustomed to. Even if he couldn't see it, or rather, himself, it was an undeniable, absolutely true fact that lance's body had switched back to its original gender. 

Lance blinked quick and hard, although it did nothing for his sight, he could feel heavy drops of water sliding down his cheekbones and dropping off of his pointed chin. 

He warily lifted his arms, finding himself aware of the unfamiliar weight of something on his wrist. He pulled the bracelet off and physically felt his body shrink. 

The blue padalin's chest grew heavy and the long genitalia between his legs once again vanished. A shocked gasp filled the room and Lance dropped the bracelet. 

 

Not good. 

 

Groaning he... or rather, she, started groping at the bedsheets blindly. The dark became ever scarier as panic began to heighten and slowly narrow the passage of her throat. Breathing just got harder as the anxiety of being unable to find the gender-changing bracelet grew and settled in lance's chest. 

The fear was more constricting than a bra could ever be. 

Lance felt her slender fingers curl greedily around the bracelet and quickly slide it back onto her thin wrist. Is was extremely disconcerting to feel one's body grow larger and more muscular. As the testosterone settled, Lance could feel his former strength that he had nearly forgotten about as a woman. 

Lance cleared his throat and spoke.

"H-hello?"

His voice was gravelly and low from lack of use. Nowhere near as squeaky as it was when he was... well, a she. 

The lack of response and the echo of the room left an uncomfortably fragile feeling in the pit of lance's stomach. Directly inside the core of his being. 

Stumbling and tripping, seeing nothing, Lance fumbled across the room to the door, falling quite a few times on the way. By the time lance made it to the switch to open the door his nose, knees and palms were hurting and wet, but Lance couldn't tell if it was sweat or blood. He licked his top lip- yep, it was blood. Lance was pretty sure that his knees were bleeding as well... he still had no clue about his hands. 

Lance followed the sounds of shouting voices down the hallway, leaning on the walls for support and sincerely hoping that he was not leaving bloody hand prints everywhere. 

His legs shook with the effort of walking and his wheezing breaths were becoming shorter and faster. 

He squinted his eyes in pain and pursed his lips, willing himself to move foreword. 

What did he miss?

How long had he been out?

Why couldn't he see?

When would he be better?

Would Pidge have to make a guide rover for him?

Maybe they found a new padalin to replace him...

...maybe they didn't need him anymore... 

...maybe he was always expendable. 

Lance froze. The voices had gotten so loud, he clung to the wall, willing himself to stay standing upright. 

Tones of anger and fury tinted the voices that swirled around him, dim memories of color tinted his mind a pounding red. 

The voices mixed together sounding like an agonizingly painful tornado of thorns, overloading lance's senses. 

Pidge's distinct voice cut harshly through the white noise buzzing rage like a hot knife through butter. 

 

"Punch me."

 

And she sounded completely and totally dead serious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello my bros, it's been a while and... uh, I'm sixteen now!  
> I turned sixteen on the 28th of june (A month before lance XDD)  
> and what do all sane teenagers need on their sweet sixteens?  
> YOU CALLED IT!  
> A BOP IT.  
> lol  
> but I actually got a bop it and it's the only thing I asked for so I'm super happy.  
> ALSO if you follow my instagram posts, you'll have noticed that I've been doing some very cute fanart for our beautiful voltron children!!  
> Check them out~! I only have one left to post then they'll all be up~~ (it's coran~)  
> I'm sorry that chapter 17 is kinda... dark...  
> BUT DON'T WORRY! IT'LL BE OKAY I THINK MAYBE.  
> anyways, like always, thank you very much for reading and I hope that you all had a wonderful week!  
> (and if you're american, happy belated 4th of july~)  
> Send me a DM on IG or Tumblr @animaeline  
> and if you wanna, you know, gimme some moneys...  
> you could donate to my Ko-fi right here!! https://ko-fi.com/A5601NMS   
> Also, I have a twitter but I never go on it... should I become more active???  
> That's it!  
> Please drop a comment or leave a Kudos if you enjoyed!!  
> Love you~!
> 
> -Animaeline out!!


	18. I ...what?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mostly shock.  
> I don't really feel the need to write anything else... uh... so... enjoy?

Lance certainly couldn't see anything, but whatever was wrong with his eyes had not affected his hearing in the slightest. 

Pidge's words bounced around his head at a sickening pace. 

He couldn't decide if he should jump out or stay hidden. The cold metal wall sent chills through his arms as Lance tried to imagine what was going on in the room behind him. 

Depending totally on the sounds and shuffling, Lance formed an image of what the tense situation might have looked like in faded sepia, as in the current darkened state of lance's world it seemed as if he couldn't recall any color into the image that he had formed in his head. 

The thought of a world without color scared Lance so much that he could feel his legs weakening like jelly underneath his body which was heavy from lack of rest. 

Everything was so dizzying, so much more... intense. His ears were ringing and picking up faraway sounds that he never should have been able to hear from the far reaches medical wing door. 

He felt as if he would faint, Lance tried to make a strategical retreat, but only ended up falling on his butt. 

Silence fell and the yelling ceased. At a loss for what to say, Lance turned in the direction that he thought his companions were in, still seeing only black. 

"Uuuh, hey guys? Wow Pidge, I didn't realize you were a masochist!"

Lance waited for Pidge's irritated yet witty remark to come, but only quiet ensued. 

"Um... did I do something wrong? If you're trying to tell me something through gestures or facial expressions, I can really READ anything right now...um... haha? get it? read? 'Cause, uh, you- you, um, r-read with your... your eyes?"

Lances voice trailed off at the end, overlapping with Pidge's voice.

Pidge started stuttering, choking on her own words. "L-l-l-l-la-ance? Yo-your bracelet fell off, but y-you're still male?" 

The statement came out as a question. Lance quirked an eyebrow in the direction of her voice then felt at his wrist where the bracelet was... only to find that the cold, metallic wristlet was indeed gone. 

"Uh, yeah. I guess it is... what am I supposed to be female? Maybe if I think really really hard I'll turn back!" Lance jokingly winked at the end, hoping that it had lightened the situation a little. But, there was no wrong in trying.

Lance (being the curious creature he is) closed his already useless eyes and remembered what it felt like to be in the smaller, more feminine physical form. 

He remembered the way his old clothing had hung on his body, loose and flowy. Lance remembered the weight of long hair and the way that it tickled her arms, the thoughts, the memories were so vivid and strong. She could feel her body shrink and her chest become full again. 

Lance's mouth twisted in concentration, willing something to happen. The sound of a body hitting the floor and a shocked shriek pulled Lance out of her reverie. 

Lance's eyes popped open (though it really did nothing at all) and she stood up in concern, wondering what she had done wrong. Her waist length hair swayed as she stood up. The baggy clothing fell loose around her shoulders. 

Although Lance couldn't tell, everyone was staring at her with shocked expressions. 

"Holy god damn mother of fu*k." Pidge muttered under her breath. 

A body slammed into Lance's small form and the two toppled to the ground. 

Allura's voice was muttering altean phrases as her tears dripped onto lance's skin. Her arms were wrapped around Lance with a strength that seemed impossible for her skinny figure. 

"Lance! LANCE!" 

Allura's fingers traced a wide "U" shape along the bottom of Lance's eye,and just above her cheekbone. 

"Lance!! You're altean!"

Lance froze, her body stiffening underneath Allura's. 

"Uh, I'm sorry... what?"

Lance slowly untangled her hand from Allura's hair and held it up to her long pointed ear. 

Pointed. 

"I ...I ...What?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, it's been a while!  
> A little less than a month?  
> Well, anyways HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANCE!  
> We love you and you don't deserve to suffer... I am somewhat sorry for all I have put you through in this fanfiction.  
> I promise, you will be fine! (I think.)  
> The reason for the lack of updates is that I'm on a road trip right now!  
> ...like, driving 10 hours every day kind of road trip.  
> I've seen a lot of cool stuff that I've never seen before, and for the first time ever, I CUT MY HAIR SUUUUPER ULTRA SHORT! check out my instagram to see photos!  
> And, I guess I now have to add the altean lance tag to my fic...  
> ...this was not the original plan, but, whatever happens happens I guess.  
> If I feel inspired to add something random I might accidentally change the whole swing of the story... whoops! XD  
> Well, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter and will continue to await new updates!  
> Oh right, I also made a LINE play account, so if any of you are active on there just DM me on instagram what your username is!  
> That's all for now I suppose~
> 
> -Animaeline away!!!!  
> (like a super hero XD)


	19. Don't leave me.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Altean LANGST  
> also, just a little of keith angst  
> and some Klance  
> AS WELL AS KEITH FINALLY ADMITING HIS FEELING LIKE GOD DAMMMMMMMMM BOIIIIIIIII THAT LOOK LONG ENOUGH  
> please enjoy chapter 19!  
> (Also, thank you all for 6000 views!)

"I'm... i... sorry... it's just been... it's been so long... since..." Allura was sniffling quietly as she rubbed at her eyes. Coran had fainted and Shiro was trying to wake him up... Shiro was only in charge because Pidge had slapped Coran across the face in an effort to, uh, smack his eyes open. 

Needless to say, it didn't work. 

All it resulted in was hunk shrieking "YOU CAN'T JUST HIT AN UNCONSCIOUS PERSON!! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN TRY THAT?!" Pidge muttered something back that sounded exactly like "I saw it once in an anime..." and was banished from Coran's side. 

She was still grumbling irritatedly from her spot that was a safe distance from Coran's blacked out figure. Lance was (understandably) very confused. 

"Allura. I don't know... I think... are- are you sure I'm altean? I mean, I've been, uh, 'human' for, well, forever. I'd like to think that if... if I am altean I would have known, or at least had a feeling!" 

Allura shook her head (not that Lance could see the gesture anyways.)

"Lance, what you are doesn't affect who you are or your personality. There's no way that you could have known. I think that your altean blood was triggered by the transformation... we, we being Pidge and I, didn't choose you for the gender swap experiment arbitrarily. We chose you because you had the highest compatibility to change- it makes so much sense now! Alteans have the ability to change their forms at will, but it takes an incredibly strong and magically adept altean to change their voice and gender. Maybe the blue lion recognized you and that's why she accepted you so easily. When I was a child, the blue padalin of old told be that the blue lion of voltron was very hard to get along with unless she saw your true power and potential!"

Lance's brows furrowed as her full lips turned down into a frown. Lance opened her mouth then closed it again, hesitating hard. Lance closed her eyes once again, her grimace deepening as she willed her body to return to her original sex. Lance could feel her body growing, growing back into his cloths, his legs becoming longer, filling more space. 

Lance held a hand up gingerly to his head. His hair was still long and his ears were still long and sharp. 

He held his fingers up to his eyes, his long lashes brushing lightly against his fingertips. 

The room went silent again at his transformation. "Uh, um, h-hey Lance." It was Pidge who spoke up and broke the silence this time, "did you- did you mean to do that with your hair?"

Lance raised an eyebrow, he had so many questions, but was not expecting to be asked one. "Do what? In case you forgot, I'm effing blind right now, Pidge." The irritated edge to his voice was sharper than Lance had meant to to be. Pidge did not respond. After a few seconds of silence it was Hunk who answered. 

"Your hair is white!"

"My hair is what?"

"Your hair is white, like Allura's! Well, it's more of a silver, but so are your eyelashes and eyebrows. It makes your skin look a little darker in contrast and you have the little line things that Allura and Coran have under their eyes. Except while Allura's are pink and Coran's are blue, yours are like, a mix. Yours are purple!"

Lance sighed. "Ah, geez. I promised my mom that my first tattoo would be a rose..."

Keith scooted closer to Lance. "Why a rose?" He asked gently. 

Lance's smile was so genuine Keith felt as if he would cry. Keith had gone through what Lance was going through... being half galra and all... no, what Lance was going through had to be much harder. At least Keith's appearance hadn't changed... at least Keith wasn't blind at the time. 

Lance rubbed at his eye. "U-um, well, my mama's name is Rosita... I-it means little rose." Tears started to pour over Lance's eyelashes. Lance's body began to shrink, at first Keith thought that Lance was reverting back to a female body, but his body just kept getting smaller and smaller. Keith grabbed Lance's petite form and cupped lance's chin in his hand. 

Lance looked to be about seven years of age. Just a child. 

"ALLURA. WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" Keith was panicking. He didn't know how to react, so Keith went into auto pilot. He picked Lance up and cradled the young boy in his arms, water beginning to well on Keith's bottom eyelid. "Allura..." rather than a commanding bark, Keith's voice came out as a desperate whisper. "Allura, what do I do? Can we help him?" 

Lance's altean marks began to glow an eerie lilac. Allura's eyes widened in fear. She had already lost her entire planet... and she might have just irreparably hurt one of the last of her people. 

Allura shook her head slowly, never taking her wide eyes off of Lance. 

"I-I don't know... I-I've never se-en this before."

"Its memory recovery." All heads turned around to see Coran sit up with a grim look on his face. "When an altean goes into shock, they shut down. Look through their memories. Try to find what caused their predicament. His body is rejecting the changes and trying to make sense of them. His mind and body have returned to the beginning, when he started to notice he was different. Hunk. Do you remember where the head sets that we used for the team building activity are?" 

Hunk's eyes widened, the softened, clearly on the verge of a mental breakdown. "Will they help him?" Hunk's voice was barely a rasp. Almost like he was too afraid to hope.  
Coran nodded firmly and the yellow padalin sprinted away. 

Coran stood up and patted down his mustache, the air of authority that surrounded him was almost intimidating. 

"Keith. Go to a cryopod and press the chair transformation button on the outside of the pod. It's green. Set Lance down, gently. Pidge. Go retrieve some extra pillows and blankets from the laundry room supply closet. Shiro. Go to Lance's room and get something that looks like he's owned it for a long time. Preferably something on the softer side. Allura. Go get some liquid and nutrients. We're gonna be here for the long run." 

Everyone obeyed his commands and it soon became apparent why Coran was the lead general as well as royal advisor for the altean castle. Coran walked over to Keith and Lance at a very brisk pace. Coran pressed his two fingers to the middle of Lance's forehead. 

"His mind is very chaotic right now. He's trying to process too much at once. We have to calm him down. Keith, just keep holding his hand and talk to him. Ask him questions. Tell him stuff that you've never told anybody. Let him know that he is important and special. Let him know that he's needed. I'm going to go retrieve his padalin helmet. Just keep talking."

Coran exited the room in a hurried fashion and ticks later was gone. 

Keith squeezed Lance's small hand which was enveloped within his own. With his other hand he angrily scrubbed at his eyes, rubbing away the warm tears that had made it past his dark lashes. 

"Um... hey Lance. I guess we don't really talk alone often. Uh, so, a pretty exciting series of events, huh? Well, you're going to be okay. I promise. When I was younger, I used to want a big family so I'm a little jealous of you. Is it noisy? Living with that many people? Of course it is... meals are probably fun." 

Keith searched lance's face for a reaction but found none. 

"What's your favorite meal of the day? Mine is breakfast, because really, breakfast happens whenever you wake up so the time of day doesn't really matter... you said that your mom's name was Rosita? I never met my mom... I assume that she was galra though." 

Keith pressed his forehead against Lance's.

"You know what sharp shooter? I think I'm in love with you. No matter who or what you are. No matter your gender. I'm in love with you, okay? So you have to wake up. You HAVE to. Promise me? Heh, it's almost like I'm talking to myself." Keith pulled his face away from Lance's. "I wonder if this counts as pedophilia right now. What do you think? I have so many things I want to ask you. So many things I want to tell you. So many things I want to see with you. I just want to be with you. I love you. I love you so much. So you've gotta wake up. 'Cmon. We had a bonding moment. I cr- I cradled you i-in my a-arms. What's your favorite color? Do you have a favorite superhero? I like spider man. You have to wake up if you want to tell me... you have to wake up... if you..."

Keith began to sob and brought Lance's hand up to his lips which were while with fear, for all of the color had drained from Keith's face long ago. 

"Please, please don't leave me, Lance.

Please don't leave me. 

Not you too. 

I don't want to be alone again."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two for two! Meaning, this is the second chapter in a row for the second day of posting~  
> I debated weather or not I should actually post this today or if I should wait... I figured that I should post it because I'm pretty much already done with chapter 20... but I think I'm going wait to post chapter twenty so that I can work on drawing some altean fem lance!!  
> Trust me.  
> The next chapter is gonna be really cool!  
> I feel like I might have broken a few hearts with the keith line at the end... sorry...  
> just so you know, next chapter is going to be based around a child lance which is mostly based on myself and my own experience... does that count as a self insert?  
> Well, I think that it's pretty well written.  
> I'd like to make a special request.  
> So that I can write more and start adding drawings to every chapter, I... well, I need money.  
> So if you feel like you would like to see more of my work, both writing and drawing, please use my paypal link below to make a donation.  
> paypal.me/animeline  
> I will do a shout out to anybody who donates even if it's as little as a dollar!  
> Also, if you donate 5 dollars or more, I'll send you sketches that I won't post as well as sneak peeks of official drawings!!  
> ...Official meaning stuff that I'll post in here.  
> If you can, please do! If you can't, thank you very much for reading and continuing to support me!  
> See you all again very very soon!  
> Please drop a comment if you enjoyed this chapter!  
> Bye bye!!  
> -Animaeline Out~!


	20. Childhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance dreams of the past.

When Lance opened his eyes again, he could see. Lance bolted out of his bed as fast as he could, tossing aside the familiar sheets of his room at home. He went over to his star chart calendar and crossed off the date, July 27th. Tomorrow Lance would be six!

Lance rushed to the bathroom mirror and began patting down his hair in an attempt to seem a bit neater. The young Lance McClain brushed his teeth vigorously as he began wondering what kind of cake his mother would make for his birthday celebration. 

Last year had been red velvet, this year he hoped that it would be marble cake or chocolate Oreo. His favorite flavors of ice cream were cookie dough, mint chocolate chip and peanut butter. Ice cream was only for birthdays and the sweets would be the highlight of the day. 

Lance was giddy as he slipped out of his pajamas and into a red shirt with denim overalls. 

They were cut into shorts because the pants had been so ripped up. Most of his clothing was second hand, but Lance didn't mind. They all worked just fine and momma said that holes and stains gave clothing 'character.' 

... not that Lance really knew what that meant. 

Lance quietly snuck into the nursery, the wood creaking underneath his feet and the door squealing like something from a horror movie. Lance flinched, looking back over his shoulder. Light from a crack in the door seeped over the worn wooden slats, but nobody was shushing him, so he continued toward the white cradle. 

Grabbing a green step stool that was slightly too high for him, he strained to move the heavy object to the lowered side of the crib as quietly as possible.

Climbing onto the stool, Lance gripped the edge of the cradle and grinned, whispering to the two much smaller forms below his smiling face. "Good morning babies! Momma says that you're not old enough to play with me yet, so I gotta be patient. I'm your big brother so you gotta listen to what I say, okay?" In response, one of the twins started to tear up and whine, a sound that was treacherously close to a wail, and if Lance knew anything, it was that a crying baby was no good at all. 

"Oh! Oh no, no, no, don't cry! Wait here! Be righ' back! Promise!!"

Lance began to climb down then climbed right back up to wiggle a finger at the twins. 

"Don't. move."

Lance hopped down an ran to his room, sliding down the hallways in his black and white astronaut socks. Lance snatched his blue, stuffed animal bunny off the the ruffled sheet, sliping just a little bit on the comforter that he had left on the ground. Holding the stuffed animal in both hands as he followed the familiar path to the room that the twins were in. 

Both of the babies has begun to cry in earnest now. 

Lance clambered back onto the stool as fast as his small body could and dropped the blue stuffed animal bunny into the cradle, shoving it in between the babies. The twins quieted down with a curious "Buh?" And wrapped their chubby little hands around the rabbit doll, falling back into a peaceful slumber, soft snores leaving their lips and squished noses as drool slid from their open mouths and over their fat cheeks. 

Lance poked one of the cheeks. "Boop!" He giggled. "Okay, I'm letting you borrow Mister Hoppy for right now. But you have to give him back to be later. He's an important gift that mommy gave me!"

Lance jumped down from the green step stool and smiled. It was going to be a good day. He could feel it. 

 

...

 

Shiro burst in the room, holding up a ragged blue bunny. Shiro was panting from sprinting back as fast as he could. "Will this do?"

Coran almost smiled. "Yes. Just put it next to him." Shiro crossed the room and placed the rabbit by the young lance's foot. Keith and hunk were each holding one of lance's small hands. The head gear that hunk had retrieved was projecting a small back screen in front of lance's sleeping face. Snippings of voices and songs were drowning in an all consuming white noise. 

Allura was sitting in the corner with a plate of food on her twitching legs, but she wasn't actually eating anything. Just picking at the green goop. She felt so horrid. So lost.   
Keith felt the same way, except he could actually voice the question that everyone was thinking.without turning his unblinking eyes from Lance's unconscious body 

"How do we know that our efforts are working? That we're actually DOING anything?" 

Coran nodded. "There will be signs. As his brain goes through the memories, his body will become the same size as it is in the memory he is currently reliving. Also, if his subconscious decides that a memory is important to the current event that made him the way he... is, then the important memory will spike in power and will broadcast the memory onto the screen in front of his face."

Hunk's eyebrows creased in the center. Hunk heard familiar voices embedded in the static, among them he heard his own, but higher... probability from memories of childhood. He heard the voice of Rosita, lance's mother. 

Hunk strained to hear the sounds that lay hidden under the buzzing cacophony of white noise. His ears perked at the faint sound of a nostalgic voice that hunk had thought he would never hear again. The voice kept getting louder through the eerie crackle, causing hunk's face to harden into a cold recognition. 

Suddenly all the the extra noise cut out and a single voice pierced through the silence. The voice was male and husky, the low voice of a full grown male.   
"How's it going, sport? Are you excited for your birthday party, my little cadet?"

With a bright flash, a warm light filled the screen fading into the face of a bearded man with a gentle smile. Hunk stood up abruptly, a low growl slithered from between his teeth. 

Keith and Shiro were taken aback by the seemingly uncharacteristic reaction from the yellow paladin. I'm hushed tones, they began to panic. Shiro began to pose a question when hunk slammed his fish angrily into the table. 

"I should have KNOWN that bastard was the root of it all..."

Keith eyes flickered from hunk back to the screen. "Who... who is it?"

Hunk was seething. "It's his...it's lance's..."

He was cut off by a happy voice yelling "PAPA!" The little Lance on the screen launched himself into the man's arms as he was spun around and around. 

"Do the thing!! Do the thing!!" Little lance's voice changed excitedly, but the voices had already began to slur. 

The man smiled down at lance's small figure and covered his face, his hair began to glow behind his hands, but when the hands were pulled back it didn't reveal the smiling face of a human... the man was obviously altean, and grinning from ear to ear. 

Delighted peals of laughter from Lance suddenly cut off when the screen suddenly went dark and the static resumed. 

Besides the static, the room was silent. 

Pidge's eyes were so wide she looked like an owl. 

"What the fucking hell was THAT?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I am minorly tempted to attempt writing smut... mostly because I've been binge reading lancelot fics and I kinda wanna... try... maybe...  
>  Well, in any case, here's the 20th chapter!  
> It's been a while since I last posted I guess, because of just... stuff going on irl.  
> I'll try doing some drawings for my fic maybe, hey... if you guys wanna like... uuuuuuuuhh donate? I guess?  
> here's my paypal link PayPal.Me/animeline  
> Thaaaaanks!  
> that's it for now I guess...  
> -Love! Animaeline


	21. Forgotten past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The prelude to the big awakening

It was a wonderful birthday!

There were even more sweets than all of the previous years. 

Just before dinner lance’s parents had vanished into a hallway and when they came back they seemed upset. Lance tried not to mind it too much, after all, this was a celebration!

Even the twins seemed to be enjoying the party. Giggling at every joke even if they didn’t understand what was going on in the slightest. 

After the cake was finished and the aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends departed joyfully, lance’s parents ushered him up to bed. 

It had been about an hour. Lance had been lying down in bed waiting for sleep to come and take him, basking in the warmth of a happy, happy birthday he he wondered why he hadn’t fallen asleep yet. 

Then heremembered: he had forgotten Mister Hoppy downstairs. 

Knowing full well that he wasn't supposed to be out of bed lance crept carefully across the wooden floors, being sure to step softly in hopes of keeping the quiet.

Lance made quick, little hops over well memorized creeky floorboards. Sliding down the stairs in fuzzy socks, little Lance leaned heavily on the hand rail. 

Now at the bottom of the stairs, Lance felt as if his heart would fly right out of his chest. He could hear hushed voices from down the hallway... they sounded almost scared. 

Lance took a deep breath and tried to calm his thoughts. Edging along the wall, Lance made his way toward the whispers in the kitchen. Shadows of his mother and father were cast on the wall in front of him, their voices trailed from behind the corner where Lance was hiding. 

He could hear the voice of his mother hitching on the high notes, something that only happened when she was extremely nervous. 

 

“...but what about the kids? What about me? And Lance?” Lance’s ears perked when he heard his own name. Rosita was frightened... Lance could hear it in her voice. 

His dad cleared his throat and sighed. “You’ll be fine, you have the twins! And the twins have you. And Lance was too young to remember anything but earth. I can’t risk losing you. Any of you. I promise, it’ll be okay.”

A sniffle came from his mother and that was when Lance realized something. His dad was leaving. 

“I love him as if he were my own, he may be my son, but I’m not his birth mother, just like you he isn’t even human! He’s more! How can you say he’ll be fine? What if... what if he has some powers that awaken or something and I don’t know what to do! I need you!   
WE NEED YOU.” 

Lance was in shock. He couldn’t comprehend anything that was happening... he wasn’t... human...? he wasn’t from earth... dad was leaving, and mom isn’t his mom? Lance wanted to burst out and scream! 

‘What is going on?!’ He wanted to say. He wanted to demand answers and ask questions and make his mom stop crying. Make her smile again. But most of all he didn’t want to lose his dad. 

He didn’t want to lose anybody. 

Lance could feel the tremors in his hands as they spread to the rest of his body. Lance was so scared. He couldn’t just stand back and do nothing. He had to show himself.   
He HAD to. 

As he steeled his resolve he heard his parents heavy feet shuffling across the kitchen tile. Peeking around the bend Lance saw his dad kiss his mom and shove a small box into her hand. 

“These are my travel logs from when I first came to earth from Altea. Show these to Lance when he grows up... when he’s safe. I love you Rose. You are the most beautiful flower in the universe. I’ll miss you.” 

It was then that lance’s jello legs solidified. 

“NO!” He bolted into the kitchen and when saw the shocked, tear stained faces of his parents, something inside him snapped. 

 

“I WON’T LET YOU GO.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhh... woah it’s been a while, huh...  
> Um, hello, I’m not dead.   
> I drew some fanart for hunk’s birthday (it’s posted on my tumblr if you’re interested)   
> I actually kinda forgot that I was still writing this... I was thinking about starting a new fic... maybe allurance... I never really liked allurance became I sorta saw them as more sibling-y, but everything left un tried is automatically gonna be a failure, right?  
> If I did post that, would any of you read it?  
> Anyways, I’m very sorry for the unintended hiatus but I have to let you know that my work will be fairly slow and extremely inconsistent because I’m starting a new college level math course (I’m currently 16 and this is my first college course)  
> Also! I made a discord server for de-stressing so please leave a comment if you’d like a link!  
> That’s all for now, Animaeline away!!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm very sorry for the awkward writing and the very short summary... plainly put, this is the first time I've ever published a fanfic!! I love drawing and I plan to do some more voltron art in the near future... If you would like to check out my instagram, my username is __animae__  
> Um... This is a project that I will work on when I'm bored or stressed, or avoiding homework! ...which means I'll probably post again very soon! (lol)  
> Thank you very much for stopping in... I hope you like what you read!! >///<  
> \- Animaeline


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